Bill Gertz of the Washington Times reported this week on apparently intense debates within the Administration over how to implement the new legislation to reform the CFIUS process for national security vetting on foreign direct investment: Foreign business gets a Bush assist (Nov 6).
The CFIUS process refers to the review process conducted by the inter-agency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
A second story discussed Capital Hill reaction to the first story: Security review changes panned (Bill Gertz, Nov 7).
Gertz reports that a draft executive order implementing the new Foreign Investment and National Security Act (FINSA) gives a great deal of authority to the Treasury, and that other key agencies - Defense, Homeland Security, and Justice - represented on the CFIUS have circulated a joint memorandum indicating that the draft doesn't give their agencies a sufficiently large role in the revised process.
Gertz has evidently been leaked the draft executive order and the memorandum. His story provides some, but not many, details from these. The leakers chose a reporter and a paper that appear to have a strong economic nationalist bent (so the title of the story is "Foreign business gets a Bush assist" and the tenor of the story is strongly sympathetic to the security elements in the new legislation, and skeptical of Treasury's motives).
I don't know much about the reporting conventions for leaks. The article cites an anonymous national security official involved in the debate as a source and notes that Justice and Homeland Security officials referred questions to the White House. Does that suggest the leak is at Defense?
The WT didn't post copies of the draft executive order or the memorandum along with the story.
Editorial revisions Nov 10.
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