Jeffrey Kessler, President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Bureau of Industry and Security (see 2502040059), said at his Senate nomination hearing Feb. 27 that he has reservations about the agency’s latest export controls on advanced artificial intelligence chips and wants to scrutinize them. He also testified that he plans to examine whether BIS needs more resources and a reorganization.

The U.K. has seen a steady uptick in the number of new criminal investigations on sanctions and export control violations over the last three years, with most having a Russia connection, the country’s trade enforcement agency said. The agency during that time has worked to strengthen its “capabilities for detecting and responding to sanctions breaches,” including by hiring 40 more criminal investigators and devoting more funding toward gathering “intelligence” on industry’s sanctions compliance efforts.

A new task force that the House Foreign Affairs Committee created to improve how the government handles foreign military sales and export controls has begun its work, committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., said Feb. 25.

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The leaders of the House Select Committee on China said Feb. 25 that Congress should pass legislation restricting U.S. outbound investment in China despite a recent move by the Trump administration to address the issue.

Matt Borman, a longtime senior career official overseeing export control regulations at the Bureau of Industry and Security, is expected to leave BIS soon, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., urged the Commerce Department this week to decline to give the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to confidential business data, including information disclosed in export license applications filed with the Bureau of Industry and Security.

A new White House memo on President Donald Trump’s “America-first investment policy” previews efforts to expand both inbound and outbound foreign investment restrictions, tamp down on the use of mitigation agreements, fast-track investment deals from certain allies and more.

Many opportunities exist to increase the effectiveness of U.S. financial sanctions, researchers said during a Feb. 20 hearing of the congressionally mandated U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Any potential U.S.-Russia agreement to end the war in Ukraine will likely take at least a year to come to fruition, researchers and policy experts said, although some U.S. sanctions could be lifted in the meantime.