CFIUS Scratches The FIRRMA Itch – Pilot Programs Begin Early Implementation

The August 2018 enactment of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA) came after more than two years of debate over the appropriate scope of jurisdiction for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Much has already been written about FIRRMA and its potentially ambitious reach, as well as about the interest by certain parties, including members of Congress, to keep CFIUS away from some transactions. The result was a law that amended a number of provisions defining CFIUS jurisdiction, both expanding and narrowing key parts of the Committee's reach.

To manage the many changes included in FIRRMA, Congress made some of its provisions effective immediately upon enactment, while leaving many of the more important and/or controversial provisions to become effective when CFIUS issued new regulations or established pilot programs to test the viability of certain provisions. To that end, and in an effort to better inform