Wednesday, January 13, 2021
On Dec. 31, 2020, the president signed into law the Secure Federal Leases from Espionage and Suspicious Entanglements Act (Secure Federal Leases Act), Pub. L. 116-276. The Act imposes disclosure requirements regarding the foreign ownership, particularly “beneficial ownership” of prospective lessors of “high-security space” (i.e., property leased to the federal government having a security level of III or higher) as well as existing lessors of such space. The Act applies to any lease or lease novation entered into six months after the date of the enactment of the Act.
These requirements are applicable to leases by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), the Architect of the Capitol, “or the head of any Federal agency, other than the Department of Defense (DOD), that has independent statutory leasing authority” (Federal lessees). The Act is not applicable to DOD or to the intelligence community. In that regard, Section 2876 o