What Is The CFIUS: Information To Know When Doing Transactions With Foreign Parties

U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow's recent and much publicized unveiling of legislation to expand the CFIUS review process of transactions likely caused businesspeople everywhere to ask: "What's the CFIUS?"

In short, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States ("CFIUS"), comprised of high-level Washington bureaucrats, reviews certain domestic transactions involving foreign parties and determines or recommends whether the U.S. President should disallow transactions. Over the last five years, the CFIUS has reviewed more than 500 transactions and investigated almost 170 – and the proportion of investigations has sharply increased in recent years. Senator Stabenow's legislation (and similar legislation recently introduced in the U.S. House) would expand the scope of review by the CFIUS.