Congress Tightens Exon-Florio "National Security" Reviews of Foreign Investment in the United States

On July 12, 2007, the Washington office authored an alert memorandum entitled, “Congress Tightens Exon-Florio ’National Security’ Reviews of Foreign Investment in the United States.” On July 11, Congress passed the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007 to formalize and tighten the process for reviews of foreign acquisitions of businesses in the United States that raise potential national security concerns. The bill codifies, and in some cases extends, recent trends toward more stringent review of foreign acquisitions by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”). However, it also omits many of the provisions of earlier proposals considered most problematic by the business community and retains the essential features of CFIUS review as it exists today.