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.
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.
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.
Kevin Kurland, the Bureau of Industry and Security's most senior career export enforcement official, has been tapped to replace longtime BIS official Matt Borman in overseeing the agency’s export administration efforts, three people familiar with the matter said. BIS updated its website Feb. 27 to reflect the change.
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.
The State Department needs a better system to review export license applications for firearms, and the Bureau of Industry and Security needs to address employee shortages that are hindering its end-use checks for those exports, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles last week to discuss the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) agreement, under which the countries share defense technology. Hegseth said President Donald Trump is “very familiar with the agreement and equally supportive of it,” according to a Pentagon press release published after the meeting. Hegseth added that “this is not a mission in the Indo-Pacific that America can undertake by itself. It has to [include] robust allies and partners. Technology sharing and subs are a huge part of it."
The Bureau of Industry and Security revoked the export privileges of a Florida-based freight forwarding company, the company’s owner and five other businesses for illegally shipping export controlled items to Russia as recently as last year, according to a BIS temporary denial order and court documents.
The Bureau of Industry and Security last week modified its temporary denial order against Russian airline Azur Air to update the airline’s address. The order now lists Azur Air as located in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. It was previously listed with a Moscow address. BIS last renewed the order for one year in September, barring the airline from participating in transactions with items subject to the Export Administration Regulations (see 2409200059).
President Donald Trump’s efforts to slash the federal workforce are unlikely to target the Bureau of Industry and Security, which is already dealing with employee shortages as it carries out U.S. export control policy, a former senior BIS official said.