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On July 29, 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memorandum offering specific examples of what the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) considers to be unlawful discriminatory policies and practices under federal civil rights laws, as well as recommendations on best practices for employers to avoid engaging in unlawful discrimination.

Parties to transactions should be aware of new requirements for state-level merger reporting – so-called “mini-HSR Acts” – modeled on the Uniform Antitrust Pre-Merger Notification Act (“UAPNA”).

On July 8th, 2025, President Trump issued an order (the “Order”) forcing divestment of U.S.-based Jupiter Systems (“Jupiter”) by its China-based parent company, Suirui Group Co., Ltd. (“Suirui”), more than five years after Suirui acquired Jupiter.

On July 3, 2025, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“Army Corps”), and the Departments of Energy (“DOE”), Interior (“DOI”), Transportation (“DOT”), Agriculture (“USDA”), and Defense (“DOD”) released sweeping updates to their regulations and procedures implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”).

The Texas Legislature was active this Session in proposing and passing bills that seek to restrict foreign ownership of real estate and businesses in Texas.

On May 23, 2025, General License 25 (“GL 25” or the “General License”) was issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), suspending a wide array of sanctions against Syria.

On May 19, 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memorandum announcing the creation of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Fraud Initiative (the Initiative), which directs DOJ attorneys to utilize the False Claims Act (FCA), 31 U.S.C. § 3729 et seq., to combat knowing violations of civil rights law and the false certification of compliance with such laws by recipients of federal funds such as educational institutions and federal contractors.

On May 22, 2025, the House passed budget reconciliation legislation referred to as “The One, Big, Beautiful Bill” (the “Bill”).

One hundred days ago, sweeping revisions to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act Premerger Notification Form took effect.

On April 2, 2025, President Donald Trump announced a new tariff regime under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (“IEEPA”), citing national security concerns. This regime includes a 10 percent baseline tariff for all countries and higher “reciprocal tariffs” for approximately 90 countries, effective April 5, and April 9, 2025, with additional potential tariffs threatened in the future. The new tariffs would significantly impact corporations, particularly those with supply-chain exposure in China and other Southeastern Asian countries.

On April 8 and 9, 2025, President Donald Trump issued five Presidential Actions (four Executive Orders and one Proclamation, collectively “Presidential Actions”) for the purposes of ensuring adequate and reliable energy generation, meeting growing energy demand, and addressing the national energy emergency declared on January 20, 2025 (EO 14156).

As we previously discussed and in alignment with the U.S. Treasury Department’s previous announcement, on March 21, 2025, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued an interim final rule that dramatically narrows the reporting requirements for beneficial ownership information (“BOI”) under the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”).