CFIUS Announces Fast Track Pilot Program for Certain Investors

On May 8, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) announced plans to establish a “fast-track” review process for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). This initiative implements a key directive from President Trump’s America First Investment Policy and aims to facilitate investment from allied and partner nations.

Key Points

• On May 8, 2025, Treasury announced that it will establish a fast-track CFIUS review process aimed at maintaining an open investment environment for allies and partners.
• The new process will include the launch of a “Known Investor” portal where CFIUS would collect information from foreign investors prior to a filing, potentially reducing the amount of information required to be submitted as part of a filing with the aim of facilitating a faster review process.
• The initiative aligns with the America First Investment Policy’s goal of expediting reviews for investments from specified allied and partner countries.
• Implementation details, including specific eligibility criteria and timeline for the launch of the Known Investor portal, have yet to be announced.

Background

President Trump’s America First Investment Policy memorandum, issued on February 21, 2025, introduced the prospect of a “fast-track” mechanism to expedite the CFIUS review process for transactions involving investment from allied and partner sources. As discussed in our prior client alert on the topic, the America First Investment Policy also includes several other CFIUS-related policy directives, such as expanding CFIUS authority to cover greenfield investments, encouraging passive investments from all foreign investors, and making changes to the scope and operation of mitigation agreements with a view to limiting the open-ended nature of the commitments that are currently typical to such agreements. In addition, the policy directs CFIUS to restrict adversarial nations, particularly China, from investing in sensitive sectors in the United States, including technology, infrastructure, health care, agriculture, energy and real estate near sensitive facilities.

In a speech given on April 24, 2025, at an industry conference, Treasury Deputy Secretary Michael Faulkender also reiterated Treasury’s commitment to establishing the fast-track process, explaining that CFIUS is exploring ways to collect information earlier in the process and “build up a knowledge base” for repeat investors to limit the amount of information investors would have to submit in each filing. See here for Deputy Secretary Faulkender’s remarks.

Fast-Track Process

While Treasury’s announcement did not provide much detail on the proposed new process, key components of the new process include:

• “Known Investor” Portal: A digital platform where foreign investors can submit information prior to submitting a filing. Deputy Secretary Faulkender suggested this would serve as a repository for background information, potentially reducing the amount of documentation required for future filings.
• Objective Eligibility Standards: While details remain limited, the Policy indicated that eligibility will be based on “objective standards.” These may include the investor’s home country, compliance history and track record with prior CFIUS reviews.
• Verifiable distance from foreign adversaries: Consistent with the America First Investment Policy, which indicated that fast track treatment would be conditioned on an investor’s commitment to “avoid partnering with” foreign adversaries, Treasury’s announcement for the launch of the fast-track pilot program indicated that an investor’s “verifiable distance and independence from foreign adversaries or threat actors” would be a key consideration for participation in the program.
• Streamlined Review for Repeat Investors: The Known Investor portal component of the fast-track initiative aims to build an institutional knowledge base, potentially allowing CFIUS to rely on existing data for repeat investors and limit redundant information requests.

Implications for Foreign Investors

• Though the policy refers to “specified” allied and partner sources, it remains to be seen which allied and partner countries’ investors will qualify for the fast-track process. The America First Investment Policy suggests that investors deemed beneficial to U.S. national interests, such as sovereign wealth funds from allies and partners, may be eligible.
• Beyond introducing the broad concept of a Known Investor portal, Treasury has announced very little other potential aspects of the fast-track pilot program.
• Despite the notable shift towards a more streamlined process for investors qualifying for the Known Investor portal, it is not clear how those benefits will manifest in practice, particularly for investments into more sensitive sectors and businesses. CFIUS may continue to closely scrutinize investments in areas sensitive to U.S. national security, such as those involved in critical technology, critical infrastructure and personal data even for investors who qualify for the Known Investor portal.
• As indicated in the America First Investment Policy, the Trump administration is expected to continue to closely scrutinize foreign investments with a nexus to adversarial countries, such as China. As noted above, distancing from countries adverse to U.S. national security interest (e.g., China) may be required to be eligible for the fast-track process.