Treasury seeks input on Known Investor program to streamline CFIUS reviews

The Treasury Department issued a formal Request for Information on Feb. 6, 2026, asking stakeholders for ideas to modernize and streamline the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States review process, including a potential Known Investor Program. The move, published on treasury.gov, is designed to solicit public input on procedural changes that Treasury says could facilitate greater investment from allies and partners while preserving rigorous national security analysis.

Treasury, which chairs CFIUS, framed the RFI as a step toward easing transaction reviews without weakening protections. The department’s text says it is “seeking public input on the Known Investor Program and how CFIUS may streamline aspects of its foreign investment review process, while maintaining its rigorous analysis that identifies and addresses national security risk that can accompany foreign investment.” Assistant Secretary for Investment Security Chris Pilkerton said, “Today’s RFI marks an important step towards advancing enhancements to the CFIUS process. It underscores the efforts being made to expand stakeholder engagement with CFIUS with the aim of enhancing and evolving the Committee’s processes while maintaining our longstanding commitment to open investment and protecting U.S. national security.”

The request arrives against a backdrop of stepped-up CFIUS activity since statutory changes under the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act. CFIUS, in place since 1975, is an interagency body that vets foreign mergers, acquisitions and real estate deals for national security risks. Congressional Research Service analysis notes the statute requires an initial national security analysis to be completed “within 30 days” of notification, a timeline extended from 20 days by FIRRMA, and that the review may draw on information from Treasury components such as OFAC and FinCEN and intelligence community views coordinated by the Director of National Intelligence. CRS also records earlier rulemaking steps, including Treasury proposed regulations issued Sept. 17, 2019 and Federal Register notices tied to FIRRMA implementation (see Federal Register, vol. 83 no. 197, Oct. 11, 2018, p. 51322).

Private legal advisers say recent regulatory changes have practical bite for dealmakers. Analysis from White & Case highlights a 2024 Treasury rulemaking that the firm says expanded CFIUS’s ability to request information during non-notified reviews and broadened the set of parties from whom information can be sought. The firm reports that CFIUS has become more aggressive in pursuing non-notified transactions, that it has greater authority to subpoena third-party information, and that it has expanded real-estate jurisdiction to nearly 60 additional sensitive U.S. Government locations across 30 states. White & Case also notes the committee is imposing mitigation measures at higher rates than historically.

Mandatory filing requirements, however, remain limited to covered transactions involving so-called TID businesses: firms engaged with critical technologies, critical infrastructure or sensitive personal data. CRS material points to 28 specified critical infrastructure subsectors and details FIRRMA-related pilot programs and regulatory steps that shaped the current jurisdictional framework.

For investors and U.S. companies, the RFI signals potential procedural relief if a Known Investor Program yields expedited paths for pre-vetted entities, but significant policy and design questions remain. Treasury’s RFI invites that discussion; the agency has not published program mechanics or a comment deadline in the material cited here. The request sets up a policy debate over how to reconcile faster investment flows from allies with expanded investigative tools and heightened mitigation expectations that have emerged in recent years.