Brandt Pasco

Brandt Pasco is a former Adjunct Fellow at Hudson Institute. He is the Managing Member of Pasco & Associates, a boutique law firm principally advising technology companies in managing their regulatory legal risks in connection with commercial use of outer space, export controls, industrial security requirements under the NISPOM, and national security reviews of inbound foreign investment. His current project at Hudson is focused on overcoming regulatory challenges necessary to maximize the potential of Space 2.0.

In his legal practice, Mr. Pasco works extensively with venture stage companies providing goods and services to the U.S. Government.  Previously, he served as Associate General Counsel at In-Q-Tel, Inc., a strategic investor chartered by the Central Intelligence Agency to bridge the gap between the U.S. Intelligence Community and emerging commercial innovation.

Prior to joining In-Q-Tel, Mr. Pasco was an attorney at Kaye Scholer LLP, where his practice principally focused on national security related regulatory processes and transnational mergers and acquisitions. He joined the private sector following 15 years of public service, culminating as a founding member of the National Security Council's Task Force on Export Control Reform. At the National Security Council, Mr. Pasco was a principal architect of President Barack Obama's export control reform initiative. The Department of State called these reforms, "[t]he most significant changes to the U.S. export control system in decades..." with major changes to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and the Export Administration Regulations, including the commercial use of outer space.

Before his time with the National Security Council, Mr. Pasco was an attorney in the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the General Counsel. In that role, he was the Compliance Assurance Program Manager for the Science & Technology Directorate, managing the office overseeing arms control treaty and regulatory compliance for, as well as national security classification of, Directorate programs.

Mr. Pasco joined the Office of the General Counsel following service as Deputy Director for Foreign Investment Policy, he represented Homeland Security in the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and oversaw the department’s role in redrafting the executive order, statutory, and regulatory underpinnings of the CFIUS process.

His tenure at Homeland Security was preceded by six years as a political appointee in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he served sequentially as the Special Assistant to both the Deputy General Counsel (International Affairs) and the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (International Technology Security).

Mr. Pasco served on the Transition Team for both President George W. Bush and President Donald J. Trump. In addition to time in the executive branch, Mr. Pasco had positions with the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Republican National Committee, U.S. Representatives Mark Sanford and Vince Snowbarger, Dole for President, and U.S. Senator Nancy Kassebaum.

Mr. Pasco has a J.D. from Georgetown Law. In addition, he holds a M.A. from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. from the University of Kansas.