The Bureau of Industry needs better resources and technology, and the semiconductor industry needs better tracking tools, to prevent China from illegally receiving and accessing advanced chip technology, a researcher told a BIS advisory committee this week.
The U.S. needs stronger restrictions on the types of advanced technology research that can be shared with academic institutions and other entities from China, lawmakers and witnesses said during a congressional hearing last week, including by possibly extending export controls to cover fundamental research. Others said the U.S. should be careful about cutting off too much collaboration with China, which would disregard the strides universities have recently made to better protect sensitive research.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking comments on an information collection related to declarations to the Chemical Weapons Convention. BIS said each CWC member must make “initial and annual declarations on certain facilities” that produce, import or export certain toxic chemicals and their precursors. Facilities subject to inspection by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons must also submit certain information. Comments are due May 6.
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.
Although the Bureau of Industry and Security recently resumed processing certain license applications that it had paused in early February as part of a broader export control policy review, the agency is still holding applications for a range of items destined to countries outside a group of about 40 U.S. allies and other trading partners, two people with knowledge of the holds said.
Nearly 90 Republican lawmakers urged the Commerce Department March 5 to rescind a Biden administration interim final rule (IFR) restricting firearms exports, saying the controls hurt American businesses.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, said March 4 he’s concerned that the recent departure of key personnel at the Bureau of Industry and Security could impede the agency’s ability to prevent China from obtaining sensitive U.S. technology.
Ola Craft, who left the government earlier this year as director of strategic trade and nonproliferation with the National Security Council, has joined Lowenstein Sandler as a senior trade adviser in its global trade and national security practice, the firm announced. Craft held senior export control roles in the Bureau of Industry and Security and the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls before joining the NSC in 2024.
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Stacy Hernandez, a former international trade specialist at the Commerce Department, was “let go” from her position March 3 amid the Trump administration's sweeping cuts of employees who are still on probationary status. March 4 would have been her first day off probation, she said on LinkedIn. She joined ITA last year after working in the Bureau of Industry and Security's Office of Technology Evaluation.