On July 8, 2024, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Investment Security issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking to add 59 military installations, across 30 states, to the list of installations around which the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has jurisdiction regarding certain real estate transactions involving foreign persons. This proposed rule is the result of a recent Department of Defense (DoD) assessment of its military installations. The proposed rule would:
- Expand CFIUS’s jurisdiction over real estate transactions to include those within a 1-mile radius around 40 additional military installations;
- Expand CFIUS’s jurisdiction over real estate transactions to include those within a 100-mile radius around 19 additional military installations;
- Expand CFIUS’s jurisdiction over real estate transactions between 1 mile and 100 miles around eight military installations already listed in the CFIUS regulations;
- Update the names of 14 military installations already listed in the CFIUS regulations to reflect official installation name changes by the DoD; and
- Update the location of seven military installations already listed in the current CFIUS regulations to more directly identify the installations’ approximate location.
In addition to this expanded listing of covered installations, the proposed rule seeks to amend the definition of the term “military installation.” Consistent with name changes of certain listed installations, this term would be amended to add Space Force bases, stations, and major annexes thereof, containing satellite, telemetry, tracking, or commanding systems. The revised definition would also clearly cover major Army depots, arsenals, and military terminals, as well as Marine Corps installations, logistics battalions, and support facilities.
CFIUS’s jurisdiction over real estate transactions, pursuant to the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA), allows CFIUS to review the purchase or lease by, or concession to, a foreign person of real estate in the United States that is in close proximity to a military installation or another facility or property of the U.S. government that: (i) is sensitive for reasons relating to national security; (ii) could reasonably provide the foreign person the ability to collect intelligence on activities being conducted at such an installation, facility, or property; or (iii) could otherwise expose national security activities at such an installation, facility, or property to the risk of foreign surveillance. For additional background see Thompson Hine Update of January 22, 2020.
Comments on the proposed rule must be received by 30 days after publication in the Federal Register (not available at this time). Comments may be submitted electronically via the Federal government eRulemaking portal at https://www.regulations.gov. Electronic submission of comments citing “Amendments to the Definition of Military Installation and the List of Military Installations in Regulations Pertaining to Certain Transactions by Foreign Persons Involving Real Estate in the United States” should be posted on Docket ID: TREAS-DO-2024-0010. Comments may also be submitted via regular mail to U.S. Department of the Treasury, Attention: Meena Sharma, Director, Office of Investment Security Policy and International Relations, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20220.