Photo of Alan W. H. Gourley

Alan W. H. Gourley is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of the law firm of Crowell & Moring and serves as a member of the Steering Committee for the firm's Government Contracts Group. He graduated magna cum laude from Beloit College in 1977 and from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1981. He is a member of the District of Columbia bar.

On September 15, 2022, the Biden Administration issued a new executive order (“EO”) and accompanying fact sheet, designed to sharpen the current U.S. foreign investment screening process as administered by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS” or the “Committee”). [1] This EO is the first to specifically identify certain additional national security factors for CFIUS to consider when evaluating transactions involving foreign investors. 

While the EO does not expand the jurisdiction of CFIUS or establish new requirements, the EO formally directs CFIUS to focus on transactions that could give foreign parties access to U.S. technologies, data, or critical supply chains that the Biden Administration has identified as important for maintaining U.S. economic and technological edge. The EO does not mention any specific country, but underscores the threat posed by inbound investments “involving foreign adversaries or other countries of special concern,” which may appear to be only economic transactions for commercial purposes but could “actually present an unacceptable risk to United States national security due to the legal environment, intentions, or capabilities of the foreign person, including foreign governments involved in the transaction.” [2] Continue Reading Biden Administration Announces Presidential Directive on Sharpening Foreign Investment Screening by CFIUS

On March 7, 2022, the FAR Council published a Final Rule implementing further revisions to the Buy American Act (BAA), as contemplated by President Biden’s Executive Order titled Ensuring the Future is Made in All of America by All of America’s Workers, which he issued his first week in office. The Final Rule makes three

On July 30, 2021, the FAR Council published a Proposed Rule to implement President Biden’s January 2021 Executive Order seeking to maximize the use of American-made products and materials in federal procurements.  Coming just six months after a recent January 2021 Final Rule increasing both the domestic content percentage and the price evaluation preferences for

In an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) published in the Federal Register on Monday, March 29, 2021, Commerce announced that it is soliciting public comment on a licensing process for companies seeking pre-clearance for information and communications technology and services (ICTS) transactions subject to Commerce’s broad new authority to block or unwind such transactions, as implemented in the interim final rule, “Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain.” That interim final rule, which was published on January 19, 2021, became effective on Monday, March 22, 2021, and broadly defines transactions to include acquisition, importation, transfer, installation, dealing in or use of ICTS. We previously discussed that interim final rule here.
Continue Reading Commerce Publishes ANPRM Seeking Comment on the Licensing Process for ICTS Transactions

Contractors barely had time to digest the prior administration’s changes designed to tighten the Buy American Act restrictions when, on January 25, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14005 on “Ensuring Future of America is Made in America by all of America’s Workers” directing further tightening and perhaps even a new approach to determining what

Today, Commerce has published an interim final rule (IR) which, effective March 22, 2021, will implement the May 15, 2019 Executive Order 13873 that relied on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to authorize sweeping power to block or undo any transaction – including use, purchases or importation – of virtually any “information and

Yesterday, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security, Department of Defense (DoD) published a final rule codifying the National Industrial Security Program Operation Manual (NISPOM) (DoDM 5220.22) into 32 C.F.R. Part 117. For the most part, this action simply inserts the long-applicable NISPOM requirements into the CFR, but DoD has

On August 10, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected the government’s jurisdictional and waiver defenses in The Boeing Co. v. United States, and remanded the case to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (COFC) for examination of Boeing’s substantive claim that FAR 30.606 illegally barred the Contracting Officer from

Last week, the General Services Administration (GSA) announced that the Office of Governmentwide Policy would hold a live and recorded virtual webinar panel on August 12, 2020 to discuss the new interim rule implementing the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act Section 889(a)(1)(B) covered telecommunications prohibition.

The panel is expected to address the implementation and application

On July 14, the FAR Council published an interim rule revising FAR 52.204-24 and FAR 52.204-25 to implement Section 889(a)(1)(B) of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) prohibiting executive agencies from entering into, renewing, or extending contracts with contractors that use Huawei, ZTE, or other identified telecommunications equipment and services (“covered telecommunications equipment and