Security Hawks Gain Voice in

Security Hawks Gain Voice in Foreign Deals

Okay. Significant reading on the Weird Shit-o-Meter

Should Tom Ridge be in the business of regulating international mergers? President George W. Bush has decided that he should.

In a little-noticed move, Bush has installed the secretary of homeland security as a member of the obscure regulatory body that weighs the national security risks posed by major foreign investments in U.S. companies.

Now some experts, including former senior government officials who served on the panel, suggest the president's maneuver could dilute the influence of those who champion cross-border investment. The result could be a more difficult environment for non-U.S. companies that come before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, looking to execute mergers and acquisitions in this country.

"This is part of the broadening of what constitutes a national security concern, and it also reflects a broadening of the industries seen as subject to CFIUS review," says Ronald Lee, a Washington, D.C., partner at Arnold & Porter who handled CFIUS matters as head of the Executive Office of National Security at the Department of Justice.