Combating Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction

The Counterproliferation program also assigns U.S. Customs officials, when requested byanother country, to serve as advisors to that country’s law-enforcement agencies. Advisorsare drawn from the Customs Service’s senior ranks, and serve for up to five months.Bulgaria and Romania are among the countries that have participated in this part of theprogram.The Georgian Border Security Program began in 1998. It seeks to enhance the quality ofborder controls in a country that both contains an important oil pipeline and is a majortransit corridor for smugglers who move material from Russia to Europe and to the MiddleEast. In addition to the standard detection and interdiction training, the program includes“integrity classes” that seek to minimize corruption among Georgian customs agents andborder guards. It also involves the provision of equipment, including (among other things)32 vehicles for the Georgian Border Guard, seven vehicles for the Georgian CustomsDepartment, bulletproof vests, radiation detector pagers, and uniforms.Committee on Foreign Investment in the United StatesThe Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is an interagencygroup that was created in 1975. The Secretary of the Treasury chairs the eleven-memberbody. The other members are the Secretaries of State, Defense, and Commerce; theAttorney General; the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy; the Directorof the Office of Management and Budget; the Assistant to the President for NationalSecurity Affairs; the U.S. Trade Representative; the Assistant to the President forEconomic Policy, and the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.In 1988, Congress passed and President Reagan signed the Omnibus Trade andCompetitiveness Act of 1988. Section 5021 of the Act, which is known as the Exon-Florioprovision, amends Section 721 of the Defense Production Act of 1950. As amended,Section 721 authorizes the President to suspend or prohibit any foreign acquisition of, ormerger with, a U.S. corporation if he finds “credible evidence that the foreign entityexercising control might take action that threatens [U.S.] national security.”Since 1988, CFIUS has administered the Exon-Florio provision. Once CFIUS is notified ofa proposed purchase or merger, it has 30 days to conduct a preliminary review. If CFIUSconcludes from that the proposed purchase or merger could have implications for nationalsecurity, it has 45 days in which to conduct a thorough investigation. At the conclusion ofan investigation CFIUS must provide a report and recommendation to the President. ThePresident then has 15 days to make a final decision on whether to permit the proposedpurchase or merger to go forward. The President must communicate these decisions toCongress.92