On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, which allocated approximately $1.7 trillion in federal funding to various government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
The explanatory statements that accompanied the Bill included specific language encouraging Commerce to consider its role in the establishment of, and Treasury to consider formally establishing, an outbound investment screening program to “address the national security threats emanating from outbound investments from the United States in certain sectors that are critical for U.S. national security.” According to those same statements and a press release by U.S. Senator Bob Casey, Congress allocated approximately $20 million of the $1.7 trillion to Commerce and Treasury and instructed them to submit a joint report by late February 2023 “describing such a program including the resources required over the next three years to establish and implement it.”
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