President Biden sends a message to foreign investors and the business community that CFIUS will closely scrutinize transactions presenting certain risk factors.

On September 15, 2022, President Biden issued an Executive Order (the EO) relating to national security reviews conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). This is the first Executive Order since CFIUS was established in 1975 that provides “direction” to CFIUS to ensure that CFIUS reviews “remain[] responsive to evolving national security risk.” While the EO does not expand CFIUS’ jurisdiction or the process by which CFIUS conducts its reviews, the EO provides sharpened guidance to CFIUS on five risk factors that CFIUS must consider as it reviews a proposed transaction’s potential impact on US national security. As noted in a White House statement released at the same time, the EO also “acknowledges the importance of continuous improvements to the foreign investment review process and directs CFIUS to continue to regularly review its processes, practices, and regulations to ensure that they remain responsive to evolving national security threats.”