Senior Bureau of Industry and Security officials haven’t yet been given orders by the Trump administration on several key export control policy issues, including possible plans to soon relax export controls against Russia, multiple Commerce Department officials said last week.
It’s still unclear how the Trump administration will approach the Bureau of Industry and Security's artificial intelligence diffusion rule or any of the agency’s recently published proposed or interim final rules that haven’t yet taken effect, a Commerce Department official said.
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The Senate Banking Committee voted 13-11 along party lines March 6 to approve Washington trade lawyer Jeffrey Kessler to be undersecretary of commerce for industry and security, sending his nomination to the full Senate for its consideration.
The Bureau of Industry and Security for the past month has been led by a key Project 2025 contributor entrusted by the Trump administration with overseeing an export control policy review, an effort that resulted in a licensing pause and coincided with multiple senior career employees leaving the agency. BIS resumed processing and approving certain license applications around the same time the Trump official was removed from his position late last month, Export Compliance Daily has found.
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 Bureau of Industry and Security is facing a backlog of export license applications and a barrage of questions from industry after applications were put on hold earlier this month, although the agency hopes to see processing slowly return to normal as political appointees are put in place, Export Compliance Daily has learned.
President Donald Trump has nominated Jeffrey Kessler to be the Bureau of Industry and Security undersecretary, according to the Feb. 3 edition of the Congressional Record. If confirmed, Kessler would replace Biden administration official Alan Estevez in overseeing BIS. The White House didn't respond to a request for more information on Kessler, who is a Washington trade lawyer who was assistant secretary of commerce for enforcement and compliance during Trump's first term. Kessler didn't respond to a request for comment.