As Winston & Strawn has detailed in earlier articles and alerts, the Trump administration has prioritized addressing “politicized or unlawful debanking” (i.e., when financial institutions close or refuse to open customer accounts based on a customer’s political affiliation, religion, or involvement in legal but politically disfavored industries), using executive orders, agency bulletins, and internal investigative probes to tackle the subject. The administration’s actions are starting to produce measurable results.

In this episode of Cari’s Legal Exchange, join Cari Stinebower and Tony Busch as they break down the BIS Affiliates Rule—one of the most significant shifts in U.S. export controls.

On November 7, 2025, the U.S. Department of Defense announced a comprehensive overhaul of its procurement strategy named the “Acquisition Transformation Strategy” (ATS). The ATS envisions a wartime-oriented process that aims to prioritize rapid fielding to get equipment into the hands of warfighters, industrial-base expansion, and tighter coupling of requirements, resourcing, and acquisition execution. The accompanying directives signal a consequential restructuring of U.S. defense acquisition, requirements, and security cooperation processes as the Department aims to disestablish legacy joint requirements governance in favor of an integrated, budget-aligned model that is focused on speed, accountability, and mission outcomes. The new “Warfighting Acquisition System” will replace the existing “Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System,” creating both new opportunities and risks for federal contractors as they navigate shifting compliance expectations and material risk exposures in all aspects of the defense acquisitions process, including budget overruns, timely performance, and exportability of next-generation platforms.