The Bureau of Industry and Security again renewed the temporary denial order for Russia's Rossiya Airlines, saying the company has continued to illegally operate planes in violation of U.S. export controls, including on flights into and out of Russia going to and from Egypt and Turkey. The agency renewed the denial order for another 180 days from May 12. BIS first suspended the export privileges of the airline in May 2022 (see 2205200008) and renewed the TDO in November (see 2211170050).

The House Foreign Affairs Committee could soon consider legislation that would harmonize various U.S. sanctions lists in a bid to help agencies better reach consensus when reviewing export license applications. Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., said the Commerce Department has an outsized vote in adjudicating applications of sensitive exports and should be required to more carefully weigh input from other agencies, including the Defense and State departments.

The Bureau of Industry and Security extended for another 30 days its public comment period for an information collection involving voluntary self-disclosures of anti-boycott violations (see 2303060004). The new deadline is June 12.

The Bureau of Industry and Security this week suspended the export privileges of five people, including four for illegal exports of guns or ammunition and one person for illegally exporting services to North Korea.

The Biden administration’s upcoming executive order on outbound investment is “likely to be coming in the next few weeks,” said Jeannette Chu, vice president for national security policy at the National Foreign Trade Council. Chu, speaking during a May 11 Materials and Equipment Technical Advisory Committee meeting, said she expects the new screening tool to be unveiled around or soon after the G-7 meetings in Japan next week.

The Bureau of Industry and Security needs much more funding to carry out its export control work, lawmakers and former officials said during a House hearing this week. Kevin Wolf, a former senior official at BIS, said Congress should consider doubling -- perhaps quadrupling -- the agency’s resources.

A former Pentagon official expected to testify before Congress May 11 said U.S. officials for years have “refused” to fix failures in its export control system that allow China to acquire sensitive technologies. Stephen Coonen, who spent nearly 14 years in the Defense Technology Security Administration, including as its senior foreign affairs adviser for China, said he resigned from the agency in 2021 to protest the Bureau of Industry and Security’s “willful blindness” surrounding its export policies.

Although Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company last year secured a one-year authorization to continue certain China-related activities despite the Commerce Department’s October chip controls, the company has “no assurance that we will be able to continue securing such general authorization on a timely basis or at all,” it said in an April Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The Bureau of Industry and Security recently said it’s working with some companies to allow them to continue certain activities authorized by the waivers after they expire (see 2302240008).

Although the U.S. continues to impose new sanctions and export controls against Russia, the Commerce Department’s $300 million penalty assigned to Seagate Technologies last month signals that the U.S. is increasingly prioritizing enforcement, particularly against China, law firms said this month. They also said the fine shows that Commerce is looking to strictly enforce its foreign direct product rule restrictions, even for violations of the rule that may not be obvious.

U.S. export controls and investment restrictions can successfully maintain America’s lead over China in sensitive technologies, including semiconductors, said Michele Flournoy, a former Defense Department official. But she also warned against policies that could push the U.S. toward decoupling from Beijing, saying the government needs to do a better job working with industry to craft the restrictions.