The Trump administration’s request for an increased budget allocation for the Bureau of Industry and Security (see 2505020030) signals that export enforcement will be one of the administration's top priorities, said Gregory Allen, director of the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
David Sacks, the president's AI policy adviser, said the Biden-era AI diffusion export control rule was an “overreach” of U.S. export control authority and alienated American allies. The Bureau of Industry and Security’s plan to rescind the rule (see 2505070039 and 2505080026) was an “excellent decision,” he said last week.
All 24 members of the House Select Committee on China urged the Trump administration May 6 to consider adding Chinese robotics company Unitree to the Bureau of Industry and Security's Entity List and the Pentagon's Section 1260H list of Chinese military companies.
The Senate Banking Committee voted 13-11 along party lines May 6 to approve Landon Heid to be assistant secretary of commerce for export administration, sending his nomination to the full Senate for consideration.
President Donald Trump has nominated David Peters to be assistant secretary of commerce for export enforcement at the Bureau of Industry and Security, the White House told Congress April 29.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called on the Commerce Department April 29 to improve its efforts to prevent the illegal diversion of U.S. firearms exports.
James Rockas is no longer with the Bureau of Industry and Security after being appointed by the Trump administration to the position of deputy undersecretary in January, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Rockas left BIS last week and moved to the State Department, a Commerce Department spokesperson confirmed. He was replaced by Joe Bartlett, the BIS legislative affairs director.
The Commerce Department should conduct a “comprehensive evaluation” of the export controls it has imposed on the U.S. semiconductor industry in recent years to determine whether they are achieving their goal of protecting national security, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said.
Thea Kendler, former assistant secretary for export administration at the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, and Aiysha Hussain, Kendler's senior policy adviser, have joined Mayer Brown as partners in the international trade, national security and white-collar defense practices, the firm announced. Kendler served at BIS for three years, joining the agency from DOJ, where she worked as a trial attorney in the national security division. Hussain worked at Commerce since 2020, serving as senior counsel then senior policy adviser for export administration.
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) called on the Bureau of Industry and Security April 15 to “rethink” its "flawed" interim final rule on artificial intelligence diffusion, saying the computing chip-related export controls are so complicated and far-reaching that they will harm the long-term international competitiveness of the U.S. semiconductor industry.