The Trump administration wants Congress to increase funding for the Bureau of Industry and Security by $132 million or 77% in FY 2026 to prevent sensitive U.S. technology from falling into the wrong hands, a senior administration official said May 2.

Although the Bureau of Industry and Security's AI diffusion export control rule has sparked broad pushback from some U.S. allies, it appears to take a “strong step” toward improving BIS efforts to prevent chip smuggling to China, said researchers with the Center for a New American Security. If the Trump administration decides to tweak parts of the rule or revoke it altogether, the researchers warned, the U.S. will need to find other ways for BIS to better enforce its chip controls.

Companies subject to U.S. investment screening are hoping the Trump administration takes a more predictable approach to reviews by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., including by focusing on purely national security concerns, industry officials said this week.

President Donald Trump has nominated David Peters to be assistant secretary of commerce for export enforcement at the Bureau of Industry and Security, the White House told Congress April 29.

The U.S. this week said it won’t be prosecuting a NASA contractor for export control violations because the organization quickly self-reported the breaches and demonstrated “exceptional and proactive” cooperation with DOJ’s National Security Division. The announcement came after one of the contractor’s employees pleaded guilty to illegally exporting flight control software to a Chinese company on the Entity List and embezzling at least $161,000 in software license sales from those exports.

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The Trump administration’s plans to reduce export control cooperation with allies, particularly the EU, could lead to more differences between the two jurisdictions' export systems, especially for controls targeted toward China, lawyers said this week.

James Rockas is no longer with the Bureau of Industry and Security after being appointed by the Trump administration to the position of deputy undersecretary in January, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Rockas left BIS last week and moved to the State Department, a Commerce Department spokesperson confirmed. He was replaced by Joe Bartlett, the BIS legislative affairs director.

Japanese lawmakers this week urged the Trump administration to continue engaging with allies on economic security issues and to not close off America from Japanese investment, saying Japanese companies will help grow American exports and reduce the U.S. trade deficit.

The Treasury Department is exploring several ways to improve its screening of inbound and outbound investment, Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender said April 24.