Almost six years after the enactment of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA), the U.S. Department of the Treasury, as chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Proposed Rule) on April 15, 2024, to enhance CFIUS enforcement authorities and procedures, as well as increase penalties for violating CFIUS regulations or mitigation agreements. The Proposed Rule amends certain CFIUS regulations provisions pertaining to penalties, requests for information, negotiation of mitigation agreements and other procedures relating to foreign investments in U.S. businesses. Broadly, the issuance of the Proposed Rule, along with comments by Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Investment Security Paul Rosen, signals a potentially more adversarial approach by CFIUS to certain transactions.
