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Byron R. Brown is a senior counsel in the Washington D.C. office. He is in the firm’s Government Affairs and Environment & Natural Resources groups. Byron has almost two decades of experience working at the intersection of law and policy and has experience negotiating legislation, drafting regulations, managing congressional investigations, preparing regulatory comments, and developing and executing government affairs strategies before Congress and the executive branch. Earlier in his career, Byron worked for more than a decade as an attorney in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of General Counsel, including several years as associate deputy general counsel during both the Bush and Obama administrations. After leaving EPA, Byron served as senior counsel and director of oversight and investigations for the Committee on Natural Resources for the U.S. House of Representatives and then as senior counsel for the Committee on Environment and Public Works in the U.S. Senate. He also has experience as a legislative fellow in the personal office of a U.S. Senator. Prior to joining the firm in August 2018, Byron served as deputy chief of staff for policy at the EPA, where he coordinated the agency’s work on infrastructure and led several rulemaking initiatives.

The U.S. Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) is seeking public comment on how to protect national security while boosting investment in the domestic semiconductor manufacturing industry as part of a new financial incentive program established under the CHIPS and Science Act.

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On February 28, 2023, the Commerce Department released the first Notice of Funding Opportunity (“First NOFO”) under the recently enacted CHIPS and Science Act (CHIPS Act), P.L. 117-167.  The First NOFO seeks applications for assistance—including direct funding, loans, and loan guarantees—for projects to construct, expand, or modernize commercial semiconductor facilities.  

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On May 1, 2020, the President signed a new Executive Order (EO) declaring a national emergency regarding certain threats to the U.S. bulk-power system and broadly prohibiting acquisition, importation, transfer, or installation of any “bulk-power system electric equipment” where the transaction, by any person, involves property in which any foreign country or national thereof has

The Congressional election on November 6, 2018 produced a new split Congress with a House Democratic majority and a Senate Republican majority starting in January 2019. The difference between the outgoing 115th Congress, with a Republican House and Senate, and the 116th Congress starting in 2019 will be significant for U.S. businesses.

While the divided