1. Home
  2. |Insights
  3. |For the New Year, Out with Origin but In with New Definitions of Source & Nationality

For the New Year, Out with Origin but In with New Definitions of Source & Nationality

Client Alert | 1 min read | 01.11.12

In a final rule published yesterday (but not effective until February 6), USAID revamped its source, origin, and nationality rules applicable to procurement of goods and services purchased with Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) funds both to implement the 1993 amendments to the FAA and to keep pace with the globalized economy.  The new regulations adopt a single, presumptively authorized geographic code 937 (which includes the United States, the cooperating or recipient country, and developing countries, exclusive of advanced developing countries and prohibited sources) and eliminate the “increasingly obsolete and difficult to apply” origin requirement, while changing the definitions of source and nationality to ensure that “fly-by-night” entities cannot be set up somewhere within the authorized geographic region to evade the restrictions.

Contacts

Insights

Client Alert | 4 min read | 06.25.26

Twin Executive Orders Seek to Spur Quantum Leap in Technology and Cybersecurity

On June 22, 2026, President Trump signed two executive orders, “Securing the Nation Against Advanced Cryptographic Attacks” (Quantum Security EO) and “Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation” (Quantum Innovation EO), marking the most significant federal action on quantum technology since the Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act of 2022, which directed agencies to harden their information systems against quantum-enabled hacking. The orders seek to speed the development of quantum computers, which are advanced processors that can calculate multiple possibilities simultaneously and thus solve problems exponentially faster than traditional computers. At the same time, the orders look to protect against the danger that quantum technology can “break” traditional encryption by easily decoding it. Of particular note for government contractors, the Quantum Security EO directs agencies to update federal acquisition regulations to require contractors by 2031 to adopt information processing standards that resist quantum-enabled codebreaking....

View All Insights