The Bureau of Industry and Security needs to overhaul its export control policies to stem the flow of U.S. national security technology that is fueling China’s military modernization, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said in a report marking the end of a 90-day review of the agency (see 2210030068).

Three days after Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo suggested her Bureau of Industry and Security needs more funding to handle a surge in export licensing requests (see 2312040041), three key House Republicans said on Dec. 5 that BIS must strengthen its export controls before they will support a budget increase for the agency.

New analysis from Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology includes a table of more than 100 types of semiconductors and whether they’re subject to U.S. export licensing requirements. CSET also said a new red flag recently published by the Bureau of Industry and Security could cause foundries to ask more questions of customers seeking to produce advanced chips.

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The U.S. this week announced new sanctions and export controls against a host of companies and people for violating export restrictions against Russia, including a Belgian businessman and his defense component procurement network. Along with new Treasury Department sanctions, DOJ said it was preparing to release two indictments against the man, Hans De Geetere, and the Bureau of Industry and Security added De Geetere, his affiliated companies and other unrelated parties to the Entity List for illegally supplying Russia’s military and defense industrial base.

The U.S. will increasingly look to apply new export licensing requirements to entire countries rather than to specific companies, which could lead to a shift away from the Entity List, Commerce Secretary Gina Riamondo said. She also said the agency will continue targeting new artificial intelligence-related products developed by American semiconductor companies, such as Nvidia, that fall just below U.S. export control thresholds.

The U.S. should place export controls and investment restrictions on Chinese drone maker Autel Robotics, which has ties to the country’s military and uses parts from at least one other Chinese company on the Entity List, the leaders of the House Select Committee on China said in a letter last week to the Biden administration. The lawmakers also said they’re concerned that the Chinese government uses Autel’s technology for human rights abuses in Xinjiang and that the company sells its products to Russia.

The Biden administration will soon add another industry advisory committee to provide input on U.S. export control regulations.

The Biden administration should investigate all Chinese lidar technology companies to determine whether they should be placed on the Entity List or made subject to U.S. investment restrictions, the House Select Committee on China said in a letter this week. The lawmakers said lidar, or light detection and ranging, is being used in autonomous systems and robotics but isn’t subject to export controls, potentially allowing a loophole for Chinese companies to acquire U.S. technologies for use in lidar systems that can aid the country’s military.

The Bureau of Industry and Security sent a final rule for interagency review that will make tweaks, clarifications and corrections to its recent chip export control updates, which were released last month and placed new license requirements on additional chips and chipmaking tools, among other changes (see 2310170055). BIS sent the correction rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Nov. 27. BIS officials have said the agency is looking to clarify several issues with the rule that exporters have raised over the past month and correct other provisions that “may not have fully hit the mark we intended” (see 2311060067 and 2311160044).