House Backs Ending Remote Access Export Control 'Loophole' for Chips
The House voted 369-22 late Jan. 12 to pass the Remote Access Security Act, which aims to close a “loophole” that allows China to use cloud service providers to access advanced U.S. chips remotely.
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Advocates of the bill say that while the U.S. has restricted the physical export of sensitive chips to China, Chinese companies use cloud computing to circumvent the controls and access the chips. The legislation would authorize the Bureau of Industry and Security to regulate controlled items through the cloud.
“In other words and in plain English, you can’t buy it, so you shouldn’t be able to rent it either,” said Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia, which oversees BIS. "The Remote Access Security Act fixes this problem by giving the administration -- all administrations -- the authority and flexibility to restrict China's cloud-based access to our most advanced AI technologies."
Although no one spoke against the bill during a brief House floor debate, a spokesperson for Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said in a statement that the lawmaker voted against the legislation because it would federalize "ordinary cloud computing, remote collaboration, and software development" and place "broad swaths of private economic activity under the control of the Department of Commerce."
The bill cleared the House in the last Congress but stalled in the Senate. Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., reintroduced the legislation in April 2025, and it was approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee (see 2504070072 and 2504090052). Sens. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., are sponsoring a companion measure, which is pending before the Senate Banking Committee (see 2512240047).