House Panel Advances Bill to Boost Scrutiny of Chip Exports
The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a bill Jan. 21 that would increase congressional oversight of sales of advanced AI chips to China and other “countries of concern.”
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
“I believe that we all agree that we are in an AI arms race," committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., said. "So why wouldn’t we want to know what the AI arms dealers want to sell to our adversaries?”
Although Mast introduced the bill last month with six other House Republicans, the legislation received a bipartisan 42-2 vote, with Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., the committee’s ranking member, revealing he has signed on as a co-sponsor. While Meeks would prefer to reverse President Donald Trump’s decision to allow Nvidia to sell H200 AI chips to China (see 2512080059), he believes Mast's legislation still would put in place “robust guardrails that would delay those sales and allow for congressional review and oversight going forward.”
The Artificial Intelligence Oversight of Verified Exports and Restrictions on Weaponizable Advanced Technology to Covered High-Risk Actors Act, or AI Overwatch Act, would give lawmakers an opportunity to review and block proposed exports of advanced AI chips to China and other “countries of concern” (see 2512190054). Mast said the bill has been modified to allow the executive branch to make additional countries subject to increased congressional oversight.
Another change would codify Trump’s decision to ban the sale of Nvidia’s most advanced chip, the Blackwell, to China (see 2512040052). “I have been so worried that the president wouldn’t stop at just H200s and that when he next meets with [Chinese ruler] Xi Jinping, he’ll put the Blackwells on the table,” Meeks said. The modified bill “would take Blackwells off the table for two years.”
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the committee’s chairman emeritus, praised the AI Overwatch Act and pledged to work with Mast to get it on the House floor. "We know we have the votes to pass it to protect us from China and the great power competition," McCaul said.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said he supports moving forward with the legislation but will seek to tweak it to ensure Congress does not begin to replace the Bureau of Industry and Security as the regulator of chip exports. “Let me assure you, Congress is not a good regulator,” Issa said. He later abstained during a vote on the bill.
Reps. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, and Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., criticized social media influencers who they said have mischaracterized the measure as pro-China. "The opposite's clear," Davidson said.
The committee defeated an amendment by Rep. Gabe Amo, D-R.I., that would express congressional opposition to H200 sales to China. Mast spoke against the amendment, saying the rule that BIS issued this month to implement Trump's H200 decision contains "detailed, robust conditions that ensure any H200 exports will not harm U.S. national security." Amo's proposal, Mast asserted, "would completely disregard those important national security conditions" (see 2601130073).
During the same markup, the committee voted 47-0 to approve the China AI Power Report Act, which would require the Commerce Department to annually assess China’s advanced AI capabilities to help pinpoint loopholes in export controls (see 2511250010).