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CFIUS's 2023 Annual Report to Congress, summarized by Duane Morris, shows the interagency committee reviewed 342 covered-transaction notices and declarations, opened inquiries into 60 non-notified transactions, and issued a record number of penalties. The article situates these figures alongside 2024 proposed rules that the authors read as portending expanded CFIUS reach and larger monetary exposure for non-compliance, including in TID U.S. businesses and covered real estate. FIRRMA remains the statutory backbone, with Treasury-led final rules in 2020 imposing mandatory filings for certain foreign-government-linked, 25%-plus investments in critical-technology, critical-infrastructure, or sensitive-data businesses; in March 2024, the Secretary of Agriculture was added to the committee for agricultural transactions. Sophisticated counsel should expect heightened enforcement risk on cross-border M&A and minority investments, renewed attention to non-notified transactions, and evolving compliance expectations. Watch for Treasury's finalization of the 2024 proposed rules, any expansion of

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Two House- and Senate-pending bills would require CFIUS to review foreign investments in U.S. agriculture, including farmland, layering a federal regime on top of existing FIRRMA real-estate authority. Treasury's November 1, 2024 final rule already expanded CFIUS coverage by adding dozens of military installations to the list of sensitive real-estate geographies, broadening non-notified review reach. Independently, states such as Florida have enacted restrictions on certain foreign nationals acquiring real property, with several of those laws facing constitutional challenges in court. Sophisticated counsel advising cross-border investors, REITs, agribusiness acquirers, and sovereign-wealth funds should map transaction footprints against both the federal installation radius lists and state-level ownership rules before signing. Watch for Senate action on the Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act and state-court rulings on the constitutionality of the existing ownership bans.

On July 29, 2026, Treasury, as CFIUS chair, released a Risk Matrix cataloguing eight transaction profiles that pose elevated national security risk: critical infrastructure, cybersecurity, information security, personal data, product integrity, proximity to sensitive government sites, supply assurance, and technology transfer. For each profile, the matrix sets out the threat-vulnerability-consequence calculus under 31 C.F.R. § 800.102 and lists illustrative mitigation measures—governance restrictions, source-code reviews, third-party monitorships, segregation of protected technology, supply-continuation commitments, and CFIUS access and audit rights. The release aligns with the America First Investment Policy and a stated push to 'demystify' the process, but it also signals broader enforcement reach, including non-notified outreach. Counsel advising foreign investors, sponsors, and U.S. targets should map deal profiles against the matrix, weigh voluntary filings where risk indicators are present, and prepare for more standardized mitigation expectations rather than bespoke negotiatio

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The BakerHostetler alert outlines rising CFIUS scrutiny of foreign venture capital investments in U.S. defense technology firms, as the committee now classifies investor nationality and foreign government ties as core national security risks. Recent enforcement actions have blocked or conditioned deals involving non-U.S. backing for dual-use and military-focused tech startups. In-house counsel for defense tech companies should update investor due diligence protocols to include mandatory CFIUS pre-screening for all non-U.S. capital sources, document national security risk mitigation plans for pending investments, and align fundraising timelines with CFIUS review windows to avoid deal delays or cancellations.