Congress Has Many Ideas but No Consensus on Chip Export Controls, Lawyer Says
The recent introduction of several bills to restrict foreign sales of computing chips shows that lawmakers are eager to legislate on the issue but haven't yet reached agreement on how to do so, Morgan Lewis trade lawyer Mike Huneke said in an interview.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
“There seems to be at least a bipartisan interest in Congress in doing something regarding export controls, but [there's] far from any kind of consensus around what specifically to do," he said.
Huneke said he plans to keep a close eye on Congress in 2026 in case lawmakers take further action on the topic. “I am just keenly paying attention to what the various committees in Congress are doing” in this arena.
Bills introduced in December include the Safe Chips Act by Sens. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., and Chris Coons, D-Del., and the Restrict Act by House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., both of which would limit the export of advanced chips to China (see 2512040052 and 2512180067). Coons and Meeks have both criticized the Trump administration’s decision to allow Nvidia to sell H200 AI chips to China (see 2512090050 and 2512220064).
A third new bill, the AI Overwatch Act -- offered by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla. -- would increase congressional oversight of chip exports to China (see 2512190054).
An earlier piece of legislation, the Gain AI Act by Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., would require U.S. manufacturers of advanced AI chips to make their products available to American firms before selling them to China. Although Banks’ proposal was included in the Senate's FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act but not the final version, Banks plans to keep pushing his bill (see 2512100015). A stand-alone version is pending before the Senate Banking Committee.
House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., another critic of the administration’s H200 decision, has introduced a House companion to the Gain AI Act (see 2510300044).