▶ 0:09:39Quorum being present. Committee on Foreign Affairs will come to order. I would ask everybody to rise. Join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
▶ 0:10:40I'd asked earlier if there was a unanimous consent to when to go to you know. script you have to read for roll into whatever I don't know what
▶ 0:11:12that's a conversation
▶ 0:11:16it's your committee [clears throat] is meeting today for consideration of 23 measures. The chair announces that any requests for recorded votes may be rolled and may recess the committee at any point without objection. So ordered.
▶ 0:11:40Pursuant to House rules, I request that members have the opportunity to submit views for any committee report that may be produced on any of today's measures without objection. So ordered.
▶ 0:11:52Thank you. Pursuant to notice, I now call up HR 8202 to amend the Export
▶ 0:12:22Control Reform Act of 2018, provide for a 10-year statute of limitations for export control violations. The bill was circulated in advance, and the clerk shall designate the bill. to amend the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 to provide for a 10-year statute of limitations for export control
▶ 0:12:42Without objection, the first reading is dispensed with and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point. And I recognize myself for a couple of minutes. [clears throat] Export control cases can take years to detect, investigate, and prosecute. and export control violators are counting on the clock running out before we can catch them. We've seen that case again and again.
▶ 0:13:08Currently, export control violations have a five-year statute of limitations, but in the words of Assistant Secretary of Commerce David Peters, we need to extend it 10 for 10 years. Congress has already recognized this problem, just not for For example, IPA already has a 10-year long statute of limitations. So, while the Treasury has 10 years to pursue sanctions violators, commerce still only has 5 years to pursue export control violators.
▶ 0:13:35This bill amends ECRA to establish a 10-year statute of limitations for both civil and criminal export control violations. I want to thank my colleague, Mr. McKenzie, for leading this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support it. Ranking member I want to offer a few opening remarks.
▶ 0:13:57Uh, I appreciate the tempo of markups in many of the bills before us today to address generally critical issues, but I also just have to address that the American people will notice what isn't here. They wake up every morning to news about Trump's war with Iran, higher oil prices, the reality that we don't know why the president launched this disastrous war of choice or what the plan is to end it.
▶ 0:14:23They are watching to see whether this Congress serves as a check on executive power as the Constitution requires or serves as a rubber stamp. We've had this debate on the floor because I have forced it there, but it should be happening with the administration in this committee. A committee serious about its responsibilities would have secretaries Rubio and Hexath or Mr. Kushner or Mr. Witkoff at the witness table.
▶ 0:14:50We also be marking up legislation addressing the president's decision to wave restrictions on Russia and Iranian oil sales. A decision that is directly fueling the war he started. On today's markup, the answer to why we are here is straightforward. The Trump administration has systematically undermined our export control regime, a regime that exists to protect American national security.
▶ 0:15:16The president's use of export controls, a national security tool, as tariff bargaining chips against China, has already backfired with China retaliating with rare earth restrictions. The Commerce Department's Bureau of In of Industry and Security, BIS, announced new tech expert controls on China last September, only to suspend them a month later. Then in December, the Trump administration reversed Biden administration's controls on selling H200 chips to China.
▶ 0:15:46Since then, the administration has approved multiple licenses for such sales, doing direct damage to the United States national security and our ability to lead in the AI race. The record is unambiguous. This administration has weaponized, suspended, and reversed export controls with nothing to show for it strategically. The very fact we are holding this markup is an admission that the Trump administration has completely dropped the ball on export controls.
▶ 0:16:16My colleagues may not say it, but the bills we are marking up do. BIS is in disarray. Career experts have been pushed out or have left, leaving critical vacancies. Licenses are delayed for months without any justification or communication to US exporters. BIS has stopped operating technical advisory committees and no longer conducts outreach to educate industry to bolster compliance.
▶ 0:16:43This represents direct damage to American competitiveness and enforcement capacity. I would note that stakeholders across industry have raised significant concerns about several bills before us today. Concerns that a proper hearing process would have surfaced and addressed. The under secretary of BIS should have testified before this committee so that we could hear directly from him to inform our legislation.
▶ 0:17:09We were supposed to have a hearing on China with assistant secretary of state Michael de Sombre next week but that hearing was cancelled a second time in as many months. This is not the way to conduct oversight nor is it a way to legislate. And finally on HR8202, I support this measure which amends the export control reform of 2018 to establish a 10-year statute of limitations for civil and criminal export control violations.
▶ 0:17:39As we saw in the recent super micro case, rampid smuggling is a real problem and it could take years to detect, investigate, expose, and prosecute export controls. Therefore, extending the statute of limitations is necessary for more robust robust enforcement of our export controls. And I yield back the balance of my tar.
▶ 0:18:00Ranking member yields back. Glad we both agree we should support the admin and extending uh the statute of limitations, which is what they asked for. Any other members seek recognition? Representative
▶ 0:18:12Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Today, I am speaking in support of my bill HR8202 to amend the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 to provide for a 10-year statute of limitations for export control violations. As bad actors developed increasingly sophisticated tactics to evade US export controls, it's critical that our enforcement tools keep pace.
▶ 0:18:38Today, these violations often involve complex networks, shell companies, and long-running schemes that can take years to fully uncover. But under current law, investigators are working against a 5-year clock that simply isn't long enough. In 2024, Congress passed legislation to increase the statute of limitations for AIPA based sanctions violations from 5 years to 10 years.
▶ 0:19:03However, the Export Control Reform Act was left out of that legislation, creating an inconsistency that my bill would fix. With bipartisan support, updates to the law reflect today's realities by extending the statute of limitations from 5 to 10 years for both civil enforcement actions and criminal indictments, giving law enforcement the time they need to investigate thoroughly and hold bad actors accountable.
▶ 0:19:28And importantly, as the chairman just noted, this is not just our view from Congress in a bipartisan fashion. A few months ago, the assistant secretary of commerce for export enforcement from the Trump administration came before Congress and made clear that the current 5-year window is insufficient for these complex investigations. And he called on us to extend it to 10 years.
▶ 0:19:51It's a practical, bipartisan, common sense step to strengthen enforcement, close a clear gap in the law, and better protect American national security. So, I would encourage all of my colleagues to join in supporting this legislation. And with that, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I will yield back.
▶ 0:20:07Any further discussion? Representative
▶ 0:20:10Uh, thank you. I'm proud to join my colleague, Representative McKenzie, in introducing this bipartisan legislation to extend the statute of limitations on export controls, export control violations from 5 to 10 years. Our export control laws are some of the most important tools we have to keep sensitive American technology out of the hands of our adversaries. When those controls are violated, when bad actors route US technology through shell companies, front organizations, and third country intermediaries to circumvent the law, we need to be able to hold them accountable.
▶ 0:20:40The problem is that under current law, we only have five years to do that. And five years is simply not enough time in many of these cases. The the schemes that adversaries used to evade our export controls have grown dramatically more sophisticated over the years. So, we're not talking about straightforward violations that investigators can uncover in a matter of months. We're talking about layered networks, falsified enduser certificates, and transactions designed from the beginning to be difficult to trace.
▶ 0:21:08By the time investigators have assembled the full picture of what happened, the clock has often already run out. And that's not acceptable when the technology at stake could end up in a Chinese military programs, in Iranian weapon systems, or in the hands of other adversaries who want to use it against us. This bill makes a simple targeted fix. It extends the statute of limitations for export control violations from 5 years to 10 years for both civil enforcement actions and criminal prosecutions.
▶ 0:21:36It also clarifies that a civil case is initiated when a charging letter is issued, closing on ambiguity that bad actors have tried to exploit. This is a common sense update to keep our enforcement tools matched to the threat environment that we actually face. And I urge my colleagues to support it. Any other members seek Seeing none, being no further discussion of the bill, the committee will move to consideration of amendments.
▶ 0:22:06Does any member wish to offer an amendment? There being no further amendments, I move that the committee report HR 8202 to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no. In the opinion of the chair, the eyes have it and the motion is agreed to. Do you want a roll call vote? A roll call vote has been requested.
▶ 0:22:38Has been volunttoled. Pursuant to the chair's previous announcement, this vote will be Pursuant to notice, I now call up the Export Dispute Resolution Act. The bill was circulated in advance, and the clerk shall designate the bill.
▶ 0:22:59HR 7962 to amend the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 relating to the review of the inter agency dispute resolution process.
▶ 0:23:07Without objection, the first reading is dispensed with and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point. I will recognize myself for a few minutes on the bill. This bill addresses how arm sales, how sales of critical US technology to arms embargoed countries will be treated by the US government. If we're not going to sell weapons to a country, we should think very seriously about selling them a dual-use import for war.
▶ 0:23:35Currently, when agencies disagree over a license for the sale of technology to an arms embargoed country, the Commerce Department can unilaterally resolve the Mr. McCormack's bill mandates that deadlocked license decisions to countries under US arms embargo are put to a vote by the operating committee, requiring departments of commerce, departments of energy, department of state, department of war to weigh in on that decision.
▶ 0:24:04This legislation passed out of the House last Congress by voice vote. It only did not become law because the Senate chose not to act. I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation. And ranking member, do you have any comment?
▶ 0:24:17Yeah, I support this measure by Representative McCormack, which previously passed the committee and the House. It codifies certain procedures for dispute resolutions at BIS so that the departments of commerce, state, defense, and energy can hash out their differences in a timely manner. And I yield back. Is there any further There being no further discussion of the bill, the committee will move to consideration of amendments. Does any member wish to offer an amendment?
▶ 0:24:48There being no further amendments, I move that the committee report HR 7962 to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no. In the opinion of the chair, the eyes have it and the motion is agreed to. request roll.
▶ 0:25:07Mr. Self has requested a roll call vote. Thank you, Mr. Self. A roll call vote has been requested pursuant to the chair's previous announcement. This vote will be Pursuant to notice, I now call up HR 8169, the Export Control Enforcement and Enhancement Act. The bill was circulated in advance, and the clerk shall designate the bill.
▶ 0:25:31HR 8169 to amend the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 to provide for expedited consideration of proposals for additions to removals from or other modifications with respect to entities on the entity list and for other
▶ 0:25:44Without objection, the first reading is dispensed with and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point and without objection. The mast amendment in the nature of a substitute circulated in advance to members shall be considered as read and will be treated as the original text for purposes of the amendment. and I will now recognize myself for a couple of This bill from Representative Wagner is both common sense and obvious for us to consider today as it would remove unnecessary barriers against considering entity list additions.
▶ 0:26:15Today, when an inter agency proposes additions to the entity list, the Commerce Department can effectively veto the idea by not bringing the addition up for a vote. The bill solves that by adding a new 30-day deadline for a vote to ensure that any entity list additions can be considered properly. The bill passed out of the House by voice vote last Congress. Let's send this back over to the Senate and get this bill signed into law. I support this important piece of legislation. I urge my colleagues to do the same.
▶ 0:26:43Ranking member Meeks, I support this measure by Rep. Anne Wagner as I did last Congress. It codifies in statute the necessary procedures to allow all four agencies affiliated with BIS to offer proposals for additions to the BIS entity list. We need strong inter agency coordination if our export controls are to have a full impact and I yield back. Do any other members seek recognition?
▶ 0:27:13Seeing none, the committee will move to consideration of amendments. Does any member wish to offer an amendment? There being no further amendments, I move that the committee report HR 8169 as amended to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no. In the opinion of the chair, the eyes have it and the motion is agreed to.
▶ 0:27:39Mr. Chairman, I ask for roll call vote.
▶ 0:27:41A roll call vote has been requested.
▶ 0:27:45Pursuant to the chair's previous announcement, this vote will be Thank you. Pursuant to notice, I now call up the Export Controls Enforcement Act. The bill was circulated in advance, and the clerk shall designate the bill.
▶ 0:28:10to strengthen enforcement of United States export controls by increasing the number of export control officers of the Bureau of Industry and Security of the Department of Commerce who are stationed in foreign regions. Without objection, the first reading is dispensed with and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point. And without objection, the Kumlager Dove amendment in the nature of a substitute circulated to members in advance shall be considered as read and will be treated as original text for purposes of the amendment. Recognize myself for a couple of moments.
▶ 0:28:40This committee has often heard about how illequipped BIS is to fully enforce US export controls. It is almost laughable that BIS today has only 11 officers stationed worldwide tasking with tasked with enforcing all of our export controls. Southeast Asia is well known as a hub of smuggling US technology, especially AI chips to China. Yet is only has one export control officer.
▶ 0:29:04We've already seen some massive smuggling cases in the region, but I bet we'd uncover more if we had more export control officers stationed there. Representative Kum Logger's dove bill addresses this issue by requiring BIS to have at least 30 export control officers. This bill benefits from bipartisan support including from representatives and representative Shre who just recently uh has joined a new committee and I urge all my colleagues to support this measure. Ranking member Meeks.
▶ 0:29:31Yeah, I support this measure authoriz authored by Representative Cam Laga Dove and I am a proud co-sponsor of this bill. Our export controls are only useful if we back them up with the proper enforcement. The Bureau of Industry and Security reviews nearly 50,000 licenses a year and in 2024 it approves nearly 500 billion dollars of export.
▶ 0:29:54Because countries like Russia and China are deliberately trying to evade our controls, it's critical that we have the ability to ensure that controlled US technology that is exported abroad goes only where it is supposed to for only approved uses. One of the main ways BIS does that is through inuse checks by export control officers stationed abroad.
▶ 0:30:19Given the large quantity of controlled technology we must track, you'd think we'd have dozens of these agents traveling around the world doing regular inuse checks. In reality, BIS only ha only has only 11 such officers deployed abroad. This is insufficient and a looming disaster given the increasing frequency and scope with which we now use export controls.
▶ 0:30:44This bill would increase the number of these officers abroad to 30, making it much easier for them to cover the globe and bolster enforcement of our controls. This is an overdue and common sense measure. I urge all my colleagues to support it and I yield back. Is there any further discussion representative
▶ 0:31:01Uh Mr. Chairman, this there is no doubt that this is on the front lines of our hybrid war with China. However, this uh we have been told uh in a hearing that the administration intends to increase this budget by a hundred million plus dollars. Uh I recognize that we are $ 39 trillion in debt and there is no offset to this bill.
▶ 0:31:26I'm going to support this bill in committee uh and ask for a roll call vote, but uh I believe that this is one of the areas that I may be unable to support on the floor because we cannot continue to spend money without finding an offset in a less noble program. And I say again, this is a noble program that I want to support. Uh but uh I I will reserve my vote on the floor. Thank you, sir. I yield back. Thank you for voicing your founded concerns.
▶ 0:31:56I appreciate it. Uh is there any further discussion? Representative Kum Logger Dove.
▶ 0:32:00Thank you, Mr. Chair and ranking member for including my bill on markup today. For an agency that is charged with carrying out some of our most pressing national security priorities, BIS is not fully equipped to enforce the regulations it administers.
▶ 0:32:18To reiterate what has been said uh already, there are only 11 law enforcement agents who are assigned to conduct end use checks abroad and identify any diversion of controlled technologies. With the increase in appropriations that Congress approved for BIS in fiscal year 26, it is imperative that the administration use its new funding to boost the number of export control officers.
▶ 0:32:47My bill, the Export Controls Enforcement Act, would formally codify the Export Control Officer Program and require BIS to hire at least 30 ECOs to be stationed overseas. This would ensure that BIS is better able to enforce its controls and safeguard our national security. I have to add that export control officers are only as effective as the support infrastructure around them.
▶ 0:33:16their ability to regularly communicate with industry to easily travel to conduct enduse checks and to participate in the necessary training programs at lec dysfunctional leadership at BIS has led to challenges in executing all of this.
▶ 0:33:36I hope the administration sees this bipartisan legislation as a sign of support for the export control officers and of our expectation that the ECO program be managed effectively and efficiently. I'd like to thank Chair Heisinga, Ranking Member Meeks, and Representative Shri for co-leading this bill with me.
▶ 0:33:59And I urge all of my colleagues to support this important legislation here in committee and hopefully find a way to support it on the floor. And with that, I yield
▶ 0:34:12Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, the committee will move to consideration of amendments. Does any member wish to offer an amendment? There being no further amendments, I move that the committee report HR4505 as amended to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no.
▶ 0:34:32Opinion of the chair, the eyes have it and the motion is agreed to.
▶ 0:34:36Chairman, I ask for a roll call vote.
▶ 0:34:38A roll call vote has been requested. Pursuant to the chair's previous announcement, this vote will be Pursuant to notice, I now call up the BIS Strength Act. The bill was circulated in advance, and the clerk shall designate the bill. to authorize the Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security to appoint certain personnel in order to attract highly qualified experts and for other purposes.
▶ 0:35:07Without objection, the first reading is dispensed with and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point. Does any member seek recognize myself. Our export controls are only as strong as the people that craft the policy. Especially when it comes to emerging technologies like AI.
▶ 0:35:27Export controls on emerging technologies like AI, quantum, biotech require deep subject matter expertise to ensure we are not leaving loopholes for the Chinese Communist Party to exploit. It's why we've done a great deal of work on this committee behind closed doors, classified briefings, uh, classified roundts, roundts in general with so many members of industry to to learn about what they eat, sleep, and breathe every single day.
▶ 0:35:54This act creates a special hiring authority to bring in up to 25 experts from outside the civil service for up to 5 years to ensure BIS has the needed expertise on hand. By offering these individuals competitive compensation, we'll be able to finally attract experts that have directly studied and worked on the technologies that we seek to keep out of the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. I thank Representative Shreve for leading on this measure and I urge my colleagues to support. Is there any further discussion? Ranking member
▶ 0:36:24Yes, I support this measure by Rep. Shreve which gives hiring authority to BIS to hire up to 25 highly qualified experts. We all agree that BIS needs expertise. That said, I think it's quite ironic that we are giving BIS special authority to hire fresh export experts when the trumpet BIS is still shredding expertise due to its politicization of export controls. BIS is one of the highest level of vacancies in the federal government.
▶ 0:36:53This is because agency leadership has pushed out or alienated subject matter experts in key countries and technologies raising alarm bells from the industry and national security experts. Yet, this committee has not had any oversight hearings or briefings on this topic with BIS. So, while I think Rep. Shreves bill is critical for the long-term health of BIS.
▶ 0:37:18This committee must do more to solve the underlying problems generating a crisis of expertise at BIS BIS today which is this administration's own making and I yield back.
▶ 0:37:31Any further any further discussion of the bill?
▶ 0:37:35Seeing none, the committee will move to
▶ 0:37:38Oh, Representative Self, you seek
▶ 0:37:41Um, yeah, Mr. Chairman, in the analysis of this bill, uh the positions under uh this office have grown from 403 to between 13 and 24. So I I will support this measure and ask for a roll call vote. But uh we need to also be working with BIS to for their analysis on their positions. Are they adding administration when we need actual frontline workers?
▶ 0:38:11Um, and I yield back.
▶ 0:38:13It's a very good point you bring up, Representative Self, and uh, having had conversations with, uh, Mr. Kesler and others. Uh, I know you want to hear from them, but I would assure you, uh, in those conversations, uh, which we've had in Skiff and other places, this has been of discussion. I know you've been to some of them. Um, but I'll make sure that you get more opportunity to hear from them again. So, uh, any further discussion? Seeing none, committee will move to consideration of amendments. Does any member wish to offer an amendment?
▶ 0:38:43There being no further amendments, I move that the committee report HR7003 to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no. The opinion of the chair, the eyes have it and the motion is agreed to.
▶ 0:38:56Mr. Chairman, I ask for a roll call
▶ 0:38:58A roll call vote has been requested. Pursuant to the chair's previous announcement, this vote will be Pursuant to notice, I now call up HR5853 to amend the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 to increase the civil penalties that may be imposed under such act. The bill was circulated in advance and the clerk shall designate the bill
▶ 0:39:23HR 5853 to amend the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 to increase the civil penalties that may be imposed under such act. Without objection, the first reading is dispensed with and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point. Does the author seek recognition? Representative Self.
▶ 0:39:40Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I rise in support of my bill HR5853, which would amend the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 to increase civil penalties for violations of export control rules. Far too often, we have seen individuals and companies treat export controls as the cost of doing business. Currently, ECR allows for civil penalties of twice the value of the transaction or $300,000 per transaction.
▶ 0:40:06While these monetary amplifiers may work when dealing with transaction of dollars as the primary violation, it makes less sense for export controls involving America's most sensitive technologies. These penalties are negligible relative to the value of these illicit transactions. Take for example if an individual illegally sold a nuclear centrifuge to Iran. We can all agree that the harm to US national security is significantly higher than the price tag of the nuclear centrifuge.
▶ 0:40:37Furthermore, EC's civil penalty ceiling has not been updated since the statute's enactment in 2018, eight years ago. The scale and sophistication of PRC export control evasion has grown dramatically since that date. Increasing the statutory maximums for civil penalties must better reflect the true national security stakes of export control violations and help deter violators.
▶ 0:41:04That is why my bill raises the bar for deterrence of these transactions. Specifically, this act would increase the civil penalty from two times the basis of the transaction to four times the basis of the transaction. May not sound like a lot, but it would also increase the base civil penalty from 300,000 to 1.2 million. These penalty increases would compound the risk for professional smugglers who are attempting to sell out US national security interests to China.
▶ 0:41:34Congress has a vital responsibility to ensure that sensitive technologies do not fall into the wrong hands. This is a matter of winning or losing the next war. Failure is not an option. I urge my colleagues to support this bill and I yield back. Is there any further discussion? Ranking member Meeks. I support this measure.
▶ 0:41:57We were all shocked to see the scale and sophistication of the evasion methods used by Super Micro in its uh scheme to smuggle $2.5 billion dollars worth of Nvidia chips and service to China. There are many other schemes out there to undermine our controls. The administration has argued that we need higher penalties to deter invasion and diversion. Given how large the dollar amount is in some of these cases, increasing the ceiling for penalties by four times is sensible and warranted.
▶ 0:42:27And I yield back. Ranking member yields back. Recognized Earlier this year, the assistant secretary of commerce for export enforcement, David Peters, came before this committee to talk about how the Trump administration is enforcing US export controls. His message was that deterrence is not strong enough against violators of our laws. Today, the statutory maximum civil penalty for violations of US export controls is only twice the value of the product. That's insulting.
▶ 0:42:58It's insultingly low. It isn't a deterrent. It's not preventing these crimes from taking place. Just earlier this year, the Trump administration unveiled perhaps the biggest export violations in US history. The founder of Super Micro worked to smuggle our advanced AI chips to China directly, effectively turning a major corporation into a Chinese smuggling shell. These smugglers simply weren't deterred by the existing penalties.
▶ 0:43:25This bill will help the Trump administration's crackdown on these export control violations. I would it would raise the cost for violating controls by increasing the maximum civil penalty from two to four times the value of the transaction forcing violators to feel a significant punishment. I want to thank Representative Self for his work on this bill and I urge my colleagues to vote in favor.
▶ 0:43:50Is there any further There being no further discussion, we'll move to consideration of amendments. Does any member wish to offer an There being no further amendments, I move that the committee report HR5853 to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no. In the opinion of the chair, the eyes have it and the motion is agreed to. Chairman, I ask for a roll call vote. A roll call vote has been requested.
▶ 0:44:20Pursuant to the chair's previous announcement, this vote will be postponed. Thank you. Pursuant to notice, I now call up HR 8288, the Strengthening Export Controls Compliance Act. The bill was circulated in advance, and the clerk shall designate the bill.
▶ 0:44:36HR 8288 to amend the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 to provide assistance for compliance with that act.
▶ 0:44:43Without objection, the first reading is dispensed with and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point. And I will recognize myself for a statement. Some US export controls are remarkably complicated, especially those crafted during the Biden administration. This can lead to US companies struggling to understand how to best comply with BIS's rules, especially small and medium-sized businesses may not have the same workforce.
▶ 0:45:10This bill addresses the issue by requiring the executive branch to develop a strategy to educate exporters about export controls. It also requires BIS to host a yearly conference to help exporters understand how to comply with our export control rules. I urge my colleagues to support this effort. Do any other members seek recognition? Ranking member Meeks. I support this measure by Representative Amo and I'm proud to be a co-sponsor.
▶ 0:45:34There are thousands of small and medium-sized American enterprises that export their worldclass products abroad and want to do so in compliance with US law, but they often do not have the budgets to hire large compliance teams of expert control of export control experts.
▶ 0:45:52This is why in the Export Control Reform Act of 2018, Congress specifically directed BIS to report on its efforts to provide exporters with compliance assistance, including specific actions to assist small and medium-sized businesses. It's also called on BIS to keep the public appropriately apprised of changes in policy, regulations, and procedures.
▶ 0:46:17BIS generally does this by hosting seminars, trainings, outreach events, and conferences for American businesses. Yet, the Trump administration has essentially ended such engagement. Based on the information on its own website, BIS has not organized any trainings or seminars since the beginning of 2025. And as of this month, BIS has not scheduled a date for its annual update conference.
▶ 0:46:43BIS is only making its enforcement job harder when it avoids engaging industry to boost compliance because when American companies don't understand the rules, they're more likely to ship things to places and people they shouldn't. The bill aims to address this challenge by calling for an industry outreach plan every two years and mandating that BIS report to Congress on its industry compliance outreach activities. With that, I yield back.
▶ 0:47:12Do any other members seek recognition? Representative Self.
▶ 0:47:15Yeah, I I will vote against this. As the ranking member just indicated, the last conference was in March of 2025. So, we are basically one year from that. Uh, this looks to me like congressional overreach. I think a letter from the chairman and the ranking member to BIS might accomplish this without having to put a law in place. And I yield back. Representative yields back. Do any other members seek recognition? Representative
▶ 0:47:40Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And thank you, ranking member. I'm proud to speak in support of my bill, the Strengthening Export Controls Compliance Act. As our export controls grow more complex, businesses in my home state of Rhode Island and those across the country are struggling to keep up. Not because they don't want to comply, uh, because the rules are harder to navigate. In the past, the Bureau of Industry and Security provided real support, including conferences, trainings, seminars, clear guidance, and advisory opinions.
▶ 0:48:09that outreach has fallen off under the Trump administration, leaving businesses without the tools they need to follow the rules and comply with our everchanging uh export uh rules. This hits small and medium-siz business the hardest. They don't have large compliance teams or the resources to hire expensive counsel. And here's the bottom line. It's far more efficient to help businesses comply on the front end than to punish them on the back end for getting it wrong.
▶ 0:48:36So this bipartisan bill, the Strengthening Export Controls Compliance Act, would solve this problem. It requires BIS to engage with industry through annual conferences, conduct outreach when new rules are issued, and regularly report to Congress on how it's helping businesses navigate these requirements. Better guidance means better compliance. Better compliance strengthens our national security and lets BIS focuses its enforcement on resources uh on bad actors, not honest mistakes.
▶ 0:49:05So, thank you to Congressman Jefferson Shrie for co-leading this bipartisan bill and to the chairman and ranking member for their support. Let's make sure our export controls work as intended by giving American businesses the tools that they need to follow them. I urge my colleagues to support uh this important legislation and I yield back. Any further discussion? Seeing no further discussion, uh we'll move to consideration of amendments.
▶ 0:49:29Does any member wish to offer an There being no further amendments, I move that the committee report HR82 8288 to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no. Opinion of the chair, the eyes have it and the motion is agreed to.
▶ 0:49:47Request. Mr. Chairman, I request record.
▶ 0:49:49A roll call vote has been requested pursuant to the chair's previous announcement. This vote will be Pursuant to notice, I now call up HR the Adversaries Act. The bill was circulated in advance, and the clerk shall designate the bill. HR 6331 to modify certain definitions under the Export Control Reform Act of 2018. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States and Congress assembled.
▶ 0:50:18Without objection, the first reading is dispensed with and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point. Without objection, the Miller amendment in the nature of a substitute circulated to members in advance shall be considered as read and will be treated as original text for the purpose of the amendment. Any members seek recognition? Recognize myself. This bill will address one of the most egregious loopholes in US export controls today.
▶ 0:50:44Chinese military endusers setting up subsidiaries in the US and gaining access to our technology. Huawei Huawei is restricted from buying US technology for very good reason. But its subsidiary, Futureway, yes, you can't make that up, is green lit to buy whatever technology it wants without US government review.
▶ 0:51:10Futureway is even allowed to buy Nvidia's Blackwell AI chips with no restrictions. It is legally treated the same as OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, or other great AI companies. Why? Because it is technically headquartered in the United States. All Huawei had to do is to get our to get our tech is to set up a shell company here.
▶ 0:51:34The Adversaries Act takes a first step in addressing this by having BIS recommend what legal changes are needed to mitigate this issue. I'd like to thank Mr. Miller for his work on this legislation and ask, do any other members seek recognition? Ranking member Meeks, I support this measure and I want to really thank uh Representative Miller and Chairman Mass uh for working with me on a bipartisan compromise on this bill.
▶ 0:52:00The Office of Information Communications Technology and Services was created to look at domestic transactions which are not covered by the Export Control Reform Act. This bill calls on that office to provide a report to Congress on how to address the national security risk posed by the operation of foreign adversary controlled entities within the United States so that we can adequately address this challenge. So I urge my colleagues to support this measure and I yield back the balance of my time. Ranking member yields back.
▶ 0:52:30Representative Miller is
▶ 0:52:32Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, ranking member. Truly appreciate working on a compromise to move this forward for my bill 6331, or known as the adversaries act. The export control reform act applies to the export, reexport, and incountry transfer of products to foreign persons, not USbased firms owned by foreign persons. This means that Chinese companies can access US and allied technology by setting up subsidiaries within the United States.
▶ 0:52:58Companies with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army are exploiting this loophole to circumvent our export controls and they've made that clear. For example, the Chinese chipmaking and AI champion Huawei as the chairman had just noted has established the United States subsidiary and he also noted as ridiculous as it is known as Futureway that can acquire technology within the United States without being restricted from doing so by the bureau bureau of industry and security.
▶ 0:53:27This legislation will direct under the secretary of BIS's office known as BIS information and communication technology and services to conduct a thorough review of the effectiveness of our nation's export controls. Specifically, ICTS will be looking into what gaps in our export controls are being exploited by the US-based companies that are owed by foreign entities that we know are a real threat.
▶ 0:53:51Not only will this review shed light on this problem, but it will also identify other gaps that prevent us from blocking our adversaries from stealing our sensitive technology and make recommendations for further congressional action. This is a common sense bill. Once again, I support the the support from the chairman and ranking member and this will truly help our national security. I urge its passage. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back.
▶ 0:54:14Thank you, Mr. Miller. They might as well call it FUA or something like that. Any other members seek recognition? Uh
▶ 0:54:21I rank Representative Lou.
▶ 0:54:23I move to strike the last word. Uh thank you chairman Mast and ranking member Meeks for holding this markup on a package of export control bills designed uh to make sure America stays ahead of our adversaries and pure competitors such as China and Russia. What I really want to talk about is an alarming new development with regards to our peer adversaries such as China and Russia that has been exposed by this unconstitutional war in Iran.
▶ 0:54:54And it is this. In any prolonged conflict that United States has with our peer competitors and adversaries such as China and Russia, the United States will lose. And that is because we will run out of munitions in this unconstitutional war in Iran.
▶ 0:55:15Based on new media reporting, the United States has already expended 50% of our THAAD interceptor missiles, 50% of our Patriot missiles and 30% of our Tomahawk missiles. And this is only about a month and a half. And so China and Russia are looking at this knowing they can just stockpile up on drones and ballistic missiles and after a few months the United States will run out of munitions to defend against that.
▶ 0:55:45But exposes a second fatal flaw which is this is completely not sustainable. A Patriot missile costs between four and four half million. An Iranian drone costs about $30 to $50,000. It's like shooting Ferraris at Frisbes. We cannot match this asymmetrical warfare and we can never make enough of these defensive munitions. So Iran has estimates of over 80,000 drones, over 100,000 drones.
▶ 0:56:15The United States has a Patriot missile inventory of over 10,000 Patriot missiles made over 40 years. We're never going to be able to produce enough defensive munitions against these drones. And the third fatal flaw that this war has shown, this unconstitutional war, is that even against a second rate military, we can't stop damage to our military bases and operating locations.
▶ 0:56:43I previously served in an active duty United States military. We have an amazing air force and one reason is we gain air superiority every time, very quickly. That's what we did in Iran. We had air superiority very quickly. We have it right now. And despite that, we could not stop Iranian drones and missiles hitting over 20 operating locations, including approximately 13 United States bases.
▶ 0:57:09This is a second rate military and our defensive countermeasures could not stop these attacks. And so, China, Russia is looking at this and they know, for example, let's just talk about Ino Pacific. China knows in any war in Indoacific, our military bases will be flat out. And if they're not destroyed immediately with a first rate military they're going to be dealing with, they'll be destroyed over time because again, we run out defensive missiles.
▶ 0:57:35So, we need a brand new strategy, a brand new national security strategy and defensive strategy in the Indo-Pacific and other areas. And I urge the chairman to have a hearing on that. What has this Iran war exposed in terms of these three fatal flaws? And how does this apply to our peer adversaries such as Russia and China who are looking at this war right now and realizing again in any prolonged conflict the United States is going to lose?
▶ 0:58:06I yield back.
▶ 0:58:08Do any other members seek recognition?
▶ 0:58:10Yes, I do. Chairman,
▶ 0:58:11uh, Representative Isa,
▶ 0:58:15listening to my colleague, I'm going to break one of my normal rules and respond I'm terribly sorry that you don't believe in America or that you believe the war is lost or that you can I'll
▶ 0:58:29I served on active duty United States military. I deeply believe in America. Take those words back.
▶ 0:58:35I'm I'm going to finish my discussion without being interrupted again. I have never heard something that upset me as much as what you just said. You said we lose. We've exposed. This is unconstitutional. First of all, the president's actions are fully constitutional. He's not the first, the second.
▶ 0:58:52He is the 40, I guess technically 43rd or 44th president, uniquely different president to determine that as commanderin-chief, he can send his troops anywhere, any time, and we can pay to get them back. So I'm first of all reject the whole concept you began, led, and went through repeating the word unconstitutional.
▶ 0:59:15That may be good on MS now, but it's inappropriate here in the Congress unless you in fact want to walk over with me to judiciary and make the case that somehow it's unconstitutional, which it isn't. As to losing, I'll take advantage of my age versus you because I went on active duty in the United States Army in 1970.
▶ 0:59:37In 1970, every plan we had had us run out of ammunition, run out of ability in Europe, and fire nukes if we wanted to keep them from overwhelming us and driving us to the sea. We have been in a situation time and time again, in which large volumes of weapons, mostly conventional, and a willingness to to send hundreds or millions of people into machine guns could overwhelming us. We saw that in Korea. We saw it in many places.
▶ 1:00:08But I will tell you, America under this president is in fact building our capacity. In my own district, we have more than doubled the ability to make 155s in a year. Howitzer rounds, Mr. Army, the fact is we are building up.
▶ 1:00:27And what this president is doing, this administration is doing that you seem to give no credit for is he's inherited a system that did not allow us to build and surge weapons nearly fast enough. He's used statutory and executive power to end in fact tariffs and others to begin onshoring the capability again so we could surge as we did in World War II.
▶ 1:00:51And by the way, at the beginning of World War II, of course, we were outmanned, outgunned, and been training with wooden rifles, but we had the ability to catch up, and we caught up and won a war in four years. So, I heard you. You used it for whatever purpose. It didn't seem to be responsive to the general gentleman's uh actual bill, and I simply reject that.
▶ 1:01:14It is now time for us to get on board and recognize that Iran has shown us one thing for which I hope the chairman will hold classified hearings and that is that the confluence of evil supporting Iran around the world including China and Russia is a serious threat for which we must get together and do more of what President Trump has been trying to do for the last many years.
▶ 1:01:42So, I'm sorry, but this is one time in which I would wish that you had phrased completely different two things. This is not an unconstitutional war. In fact, this is a very large skirmish that has shown us the vulnerability, as you said, but not to a period of hopelessness, but instead to a period of needing to do exactly what the president's doing. and many in this Congress are fighting him tooth and nail.
▶ 1:02:12That is what I have to say, Mr. Chairman. I apologize for not speaking on the underlying bill beyond saying that I will be supporting it and I yield
▶ 1:02:20Any other members seek recognition? Representative Self.
▶ 1:02:23Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 1:02:24Representative Self, I didn't see uh Go ahead, Representative.
▶ 1:02:27Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh I don't think it's a skirmish. I don't think it's a journey. I don't think it's an excursion. I yield my time to Mr. Lou.
▶ 1:02:35Thank you, Representative Jipal. I just want to note that the president of the United States calls this a war. The Secretary of Defense calls this a war. This is not a skirmish. And the Constitution is really clear. Only Congress can declare war. But what I really want to focus on again are just the simple facts. We're going to run out of munitions, right? It it it's just a fact. And it's not like World War II where all of a sudden we can build, you know, 10,000 more THAD missiles.
▶ 1:03:04We we make eight a month, 96 a year. So sort of no matter what you do, we're never going to scale up the way we we could do in World War II. Same with Patron missiles. Again, 10,000 about 10,000 Patriot missiles over 40 years. And then these drones can be mass-produced just very quickly. So there's just this asymmetry that we're not going to be able to counter. And so I'm just asking for a hearing on a whole new strategy.
▶ 1:03:33We're just going to need and again I'm talking about our pure competitors and adversaries, China and Russia. I'm not talking about Iran here. I'm just talking about what this Iran war has exposed. And it exposed that in a prolonged conflict, if the United States were ever to engage with China or Russia in a conventional military battle, the United States is going to lose just based on what the Iran war has shown. And those are just simply the facts.
▶ 1:03:58And we may not like it, but we have time now since this war has exposed that to then make sure we don't lose, right? Let's have a new strategy where we don't lose and and and and maybe we look at different ways of doing this. But we have to accept the fact that in any war in the Inop Pacific, our military bases will be destroyed. I yield back.
▶ 1:04:23Any other members seek recognition? Representative Self.
▶ 1:04:27Mr. Chairman, if I may, I'd like to return to the markup.
▶ 1:04:30You may.
▶ 1:04:32I uh I applaud my colleague, Mr. Miller, for this. I wish that we had had my stop shells act on this markup. Uh it deals with companies going deep to figure out who owns companies, but this is a good bill, a first start uh on the individuals.
▶ 1:04:50uh and I think that uh we should support this as a first step and I emphasize only a first step to what we need to do to identify how deep the moles are in trying to get around our export controls and I yield back.
▶ 1:05:03Gentleman yields back. Any other members seek recognition? Uh Representative
▶ 1:05:08Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My district of Guam is the most western soil for the United States in the Indopaccom area and Mr. Miller's amendment here is I agreed to co-sponsor because it's so important for for our island and for our nation's This addresses or the big problem that we have and will close the loopholes allowing our Chinese companies to access US and allied technology through subsidiaries
▶ 1:05:38in the United States. This is the solution that we have for our start and I believe the President Trump has called on this administration to identify and eliminate loopholes in existing export controls. So I'm very pleased to co-sponsor uh this amendment. Thank uh Representative Miller for bringing it forward and I urge my colleagues to support. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 1:06:03Any other members seek recognition? Representative Fine.
▶ 1:06:06Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to thank Representative Isa for his comments earlier regarding some pretty repugnant statements that were made from the representative from California. But one of the comments that I heard that maybe Representative Isa didn't because there was such a a paniply of revolting statements made. You know, you can you can disagree with the fight with Iran. You can be okay if they get a nuclear weapon. You can be fine if they want to kill 40,000 of their civilians.
▶ 1:06:37You can be fine if you're not bothered by the fact that they've turned off internet access for their folks for the last six weeks. So, nobody knows what's going on. But the gentleman from California referred to our military as, I quote, a second rate military. That was his statement that he just sort of slipped in there.
▶ 1:06:56He referred to the United States military, the greatest fighting force the world has ever known, as quote, "a second rate military." No member of Congress, when we have thousands of troops stationed overseas, putting their lives at risk to protect this country, should refer to them as second rate. It was disgusting. It was repulsive. And frankly, he ought to apologize to every one of our service members who's at risk around the world.
▶ 1:07:26It's all I wanted to say, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back.
▶ 1:07:28Representative yields back. Mr. Chairman, I just want to say, just for the record, to be clear, that he said Iran's military was second.
▶ 1:07:36No, no, he didn't. He referred to our
▶ 1:07:38We could read we can push it back, but
▶ 1:07:39I I heard it. Thank you for listening. I think I don't even know if you were in here when he said it. He referred to our military as a second rate military.
▶ 1:07:46Do any other members seek recognition? Seeing none, the committee will move to consideration of amendments. Does any member wish to offer an amendment? There being no further amendments, I move that the committee report HR 6331 as amended to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.
▶ 1:08:07All those opposed signify by saying no. Opinion of the chair, the eyes have it and the motion is agreed to.
▶ 1:08:13Request a roll call vote.
▶ 1:08:14A roll call vote has been requested pursuant to the chair's previous announcement. This vote will be Pursuant to notice, I now call up the Protecting American Competition Act of 2026. The bill was circulated in advance, and the clerk shall designate the bill.
▶ 1:08:35HR 8285 to amend the export control reform act of 2018 to require a competitive market review of applications for a license to export reexport or transfer incountry certain technologies and for other purposes.
▶ 1:08:48Without objection, the first reading is dispensed within the bills considered read and open to amendment at any point. Does any member seek recognition?
▶ 1:08:58Representative Isa.
▶ 1:08:59Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of I'm a co-lead with the ranking member uh ranking member Meeks. This bipartisan bill with a companion bill that is quite similar uh in the Senate relieves the BIS of a lengthy export license process and reduces times not only to ensure that the BIS does not inadvertently create a single license uh exporter uh to foreign buyers, but creates an avenue
▶ 1:09:29to expedite the review for license applications that share the same category of export and or end user. It streamlines the licensing application process which is badly needed. And as an industry must innovate, manufacturers and reinvent and renew their research and development, there is in fact a healthy competition. That healthy competition in the US needs to also occur globally.
▶ 1:09:59For that reason, providing transparency and faster approval times and particularly when a second or third vendor is available, but is also needs an export license, they should not find themselves well behind the first to be approved. This is good for America and it's good for the uh access uh by by our allies who often ask for these export licenses. And Mr. Chairman, I want to say that we have much more to do.
▶ 1:10:29That this is in fact again a a small first step, but today we have problems such as was the last bill brought up of trans shipping uh where you can see things that are trans shipped that shouldn't. You also see things where a product is made using an export product and there's no expedited way to make sure that that product can then be forwarded on to the ultimate end user who may be a close ally.
▶ 1:10:58Modernizing the BIS, giving them both flexibility but also guidance is essential and this bill goes a long way toward that. And I want to thank ranking member Meeks uh for his hard work on this and for his making it bipartisan. And by the way, his work to make sure that the Senate companion looks relatively as though we can make the two into one. And with that, I thank the chairman and yield back. Representative yields back. Any other members seek recognition? Ranking member Meeks.
▶ 1:11:26Yes. As a Democratic [snorts] co-lead of this bill, I strongly support it. And I want to thank Representative Isa for leading it. I want to thank him for his constant communication and working together so that we can make it a strong bipartisan bill. Again, similar to the language that's coming out of the Senate, I think is uh really really important. I want to thank him uh for always reaching out and calling and try to do this thing in a bipartisan way.
▶ 1:11:49Uh BIS must not play favorites and should treat all US companies consistently when it is reviewing licenses. There have been a few instances in the past where an American company uh has been denied for the same license for which another American company was approved. This should not happen. Mr. ISIS bill requires that uh BIS licensing officers consider the history of decisions for past licenses for similar technology to the same end user.
▶ 1:12:20It also directs BIS to attempt to administer future licenses for the same technology in a timely manner so that there is an even playing field for American businesses. Again, thank you Mr. ISA and I therefore I urge my colleagues to support this measure and I yield back the balance of my time. Do any other members seek recognition? I'll recognize myself. I want to thank you representative Isa for your work and your council always the work that you do on uh so many pieces of legislation.
▶ 1:12:50Export controls, they ensure America and our allies innovations don't give our adversaries capabilities or advantages that cause us harm. That's the point. That's why we're doing this. But they're not meant to stifle American competition in the process and that's something that we have to be aware of. There have been instances in the past when BIS has approved an export for one company but due to unintended bureaucratic mistakes did not adjudicate the same application for a competitor.
▶ 1:13:19This can be unfair and without any clear national security benefit to the US. This bill is straightforward. If two companies are applying for a same license to sell the same type of item to the same end user and BIS approves one license, then BIS should be timely in adjudicating the other competitor's license. We want to make sure that the bureaucracy that bureaucracy does not get in the way.
▶ 1:13:43We have to ensure that these export controls remain a national security tool while making sure our licensing process is fair for companies and does not undermine the value of competition. I want to again thank you representative Isa. Thank you ranking member Meeks for your efforts to level the playing field and I urge my colleagues to support this measure. Is there any further discussion of the bill? There being no further discussion, we'll move to consideration of amendments. Does any member wish to offer an amendment?
▶ 1:14:09There being no further amendments, I move that the committee report HR8285 to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I.
▶ 1:14:18All those opposed signify by saying no.
▶ 1:14:20Opinion of the chair. The eyes have it and the motion is agreed to.
▶ 1:14:27Request chairman. I'd like a recorded vote on that.
▶ 1:14:31A roll call vote has been requested. Pursuant to the chair's previous announcement, this vote will be
▶ 1:14:43Pursuant to notice, I now call up the BIS IT Modernization Act. The bill was circulated in advance and the clerk shall designate the bill. to require modernization of information technology systems and applications of the Bureau of Industry and Security of the Department of Commerce. Without objection, the first reading is dispensed within and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point.
▶ 1:15:09Without objection, the Meek's amendment in the nature of a substitute circulated to members in advance shall be considered as read and will be treated as the original text for purposes of the amendment. Ranking member Meeks, would you like to be
▶ 1:15:20Yes, you are recognized.
▶ 1:15:22Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I support this measure by Representative Crowe and I was happy to offer the bipartisan ANS that is listed as a base text. The number one thing we can do to make our export controls more effective is to properly resource BIS.
▶ 1:15:37At the top of that list is making sure that BIS does not have to operate on an antiquated and shoddy information technology system as it attempts to monitor global trade flows and crack down on sophisticated attempts by bad actors to access to access some of our most advanced technologies.
▶ 1:15:56The bill authorizes $25 million per year for four years to modernize information technology at BIS so that we are not protecting the crown jewels of American technology with Y2K era systems.
▶ 1:16:10We worked with BIS on this bill and I know there have been several tank tanks uh think tanks that have put it modernization as one of the best investments we can make into our national security today. And I'm proud to support this bill as the product of that collaboration. And I yield back the balance of my time.
▶ 1:16:35Do any other members seek recognition? I'll recognize myself. This bill addresses the national security threat posed by BIS's catastrophically poor IT systems. A system that was built more than a decade ago with issues such as when users search for information in the licensing process system. They'll often get different answers every single time instead of consistent answers. Or the search bar can't handle long term.
▶ 1:16:59So companies like China's Smick or Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation cannot be searched properly. That's a really silly problem. BIS's IT is still living in 2008. Yet, it's working to stop Chinese Communist Party from getting their hands on the most cutting edge technologies. This bill requires BIS to upgrade its IT systems to enhance the productivity and efficiency and to enhance the performance of the bureau.
▶ 1:17:23This measure benefits from the majority input to ensure that the funds dedicated to this modernization project only come from funds already appropriated. I urge all of my colleagues to support this measure. Do any other members seek Seeing no further discussion, do any other members seek uh to offer an amendment? Do any members seek to offer an amendment? There being no further amendments, I move that the committee report HR4920 as amended to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.
▶ 1:17:52All those opposed signify by saying no. Opinion of the chair, the eyes have it. The motion is agreed to.
▶ 1:17:58A roll call vote has been requested. Pursuant to the chair's previous announcement, this vote will be And as votes have been called, the committee will stand in recess.
▶ 2:34:01the K. The committee will come to order. Pursuant to notice, I now call up HR6624, the Biological Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2025. The bill was circulated in advance. The clerk shall designate the bill
▶ 2:34:18HR 6624 to restrict the export to foreign entities of concern of United States intellectual property and sensitive information related to synthetic biology and for other
▶ 2:34:28Without objection, the first reading is dispensed with and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point. Without objection, the Davidson amendment in the nature of a substitute is circulated to members in advance shall be considered as read and will be treated as original text for purposes of this amendment. I now recognize myself for five minutes. So I thank the chairman uh for noticing uh for markup this bill, the biological intellectual property act of 2025.
▶ 2:34:56It restricts the export of US intellectual property related to synthetic biology to foreign entities of concern. Countries like China are using a whole of government approach to steal our intellectual property. We should certainly find it a low barrier to just not ship it directly to them. Uh this bill directs the Secretary of Commerce to require a license for such exports, modernizing our export control framework.
▶ 2:35:20We have robust controls of important technologies like semiconductors because we recognize the national security implications. The intellectual property related to synthetic biology should be no different. any sensitive intellectual property that falls into the hands of an adversary could be weaponized against us. And that's why I urge a yes vote on this bill. And I'm proud to have uh bipartisan support for it.
▶ 2:35:45Um we did receive feedback and we tried to address those in the in amendment nature substitute giving uh a delay in enforcement until January of 2029. uh it's not a small change in the market and contracts are tedious to amend and rulemaking is hard for our executive branch agencies at times on some of these issues. Uh so we've tried to accommodate some of these uh things. I think we've got it right. I hope we can work together to get this across the finish line.
▶ 2:36:15And with that I yield. Does anyone else seek recognition? Is there discussion on the bill?
▶ 2:36:23Mr. Meeks. Um, chair recognized for 5
▶ 2:36:28Thank you. Let me start by saying I really appreciate the sponsor, Mr. Davidson's willingness to negotiate the text of this bill in the run-up to this markup and I particularly also want to acknowledge that he has shown tremendous courage on important issues of the day over the past several months. We need more of that in this chamber even if we cannot ultimately come up to an agreement.
▶ 2:36:54Uh nonetheless, you know, I I have to oppose uh HR6624 in the current form, but I'm hopeful that we can eventually reach a bipartisan agreement. Um we're still trying to work together to do that. Many of the bills on this markup are focused on BIS's shortcomings. Some of those failings aren't its fault, like Congress's inability to get the agency resources BIS needs to modernize its IT.
▶ 2:37:22Other problems can very much be placed at the feet of the agency. its failure to maintain technical advisory committees, appropriately consult with compliance professionals in the private sector, process licenses expediously, or impose new controls on crucial technologies to ensure America's continual lead in the AI race over I raised this to say that we need BIS to be able to do the basics.
▶ 2:37:51My concern with this bill is that it is asking BIS to do something it is much less equipped to handle. The agency is used to dealing with semiconductors and other electronics and avionics and aircraft engines.
▶ 2:38:05It has neither the personnel nor the expertise to stand up significant new controls on bi biologics the agency could struggle vastly to carry out a new mandatory licensing requirement, synthetic DNA and RNA, and the time and effort it would take to do so would undoubtedly undermine the AY's focus on the many new semiconductor controls this committee's
▶ 2:38:36asking the agency to undertake at this very markup. The Trump administration and the Biden administration have intentionally opted not to impose the types of controls required by this bill. I'm genuinely open to work with Mr. Davidson and the majority on this bill and would support a bill that requires an analysis of the merits of these controls as well as the feasibility and the cost of relevant BIS licensing and enforcement programs.
▶ 2:39:06If the controls were meritorious upon further study and feasibility and feasible to implement, I would fully support a mandatory licensing requirement. But without that information, I'm going to have to vote no on this legislation and I yield back the balance of my time.
▶ 2:39:25Gentleman yields back. Is there further discussion on the bill? There being no further discussion on the bill, the committee will now move to consideration of amendments. Does any member wish to offer an amendment? Do you have an
▶ 2:39:38You already did the nature of
▶ 2:39:40Do you have an amendment?
▶ 2:39:47Oh, I I do have an amendment at the desk. Thought we had already done that with the ANS.
▶ 2:39:53The clerk shall distribute the
▶ 2:40:00Clerk shall report the amendment. Amendment to the amendment in the nature of a substitute number 125 to HR 6624 offered by Mr. Davidson of Ohio page three line 24 in the subsection heading
▶ 2:40:14without objection further reading of the amendment is dispensed with I recognize myself for five minutes on the amendment um as I said this amendment um which I incorrectly thought we had addressed in another ANS. So this is an amendment to the amendment uh in the nature of a substitute. It delays the enforcement to January 2029. I hear Mr. Meek's concern about uh staffing and skill sets and so we've tried to address that.
▶ 2:40:40It accepts exports or transfers for the purpose of drug safety evaluations by recognized public health agencies in countries of concern. It accepts exports or transfers for the purpose of trial activity uniquely tailored to an individual use. So you're just targeting specific individual for some of these things. It accepts deemed exports which are defined as transferring technology to a foreign person in the United States.
▶ 2:41:06Any release in the US or tech source code to a foreign person is deemed to be an export to the foreign person's most recent country of citizenship or permanent residency and it clarifies the de definition of synthetic nucleic acid. It is intended to uh be a workable solution.
▶ 2:41:26I do fear sometimes, particularly in this field, that the pharmaceutical industry wields a lot of influence here and uh I hope they're not trying to undermine something that really is important for our national security. Um but maybe good for the bottom line on some of the pharmaceutical companies. Uh I'm concerned about that.
▶ 2:41:47what I hope the consensus will rapidly build so that we can uh safeguard the intellectual property and frankly that that does benefit our companies when we protect their intellectual property. They're not just being targeted by uh you know random actors. They have whole nation states trying to steal the intellectual property. Uh so it should be another reason for more investment in the United States because we are going to protect the companies that are here.
▶ 2:42:12we are going to protect the products that are licensed here and the intellectual property that is put to use in our country. U and it's just going to be exploited in a lot of countries of concern. So I hope we can find the consensus to get this done between this markup and the time we hit the floor. I look forward to collaborating with all my colleagues to make sure this is something everybody supports because I I think it's clearly in the interest of our country. With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
▶ 2:42:41so I yield back. Uh, does u any any discussion on the amendment uh any other members seek recognition? So um put that script here being no further discussion. The question now occurs on the amendment offered by Representative David Davidson. All those in favor signify by saying I.
▶ 2:43:13All those opposed signify by saying no.
▶ 2:43:15In the opinion of the chair, the eyes have it. And the amendment is agreed to.
▶ 2:43:21Are there any further amendments? Okay. A roll call has been requested. There being no further amendments, I move that the committee report on HR 6624 is amended to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no.
▶ 2:43:43In the opinion of the chair, the eyes have it and the motion is agreed to.
▶ 2:43:46Request a roll call vote.
▶ 2:43:48I do request a roll call vote. A roll call vote has been requested. Pursuant to the chair's previous announcement, this vote will be postponed.
▶ 2:44:31Pursuant to notice, I now call up the full AI stack export promotion act. The bill was circulated in advance and the clerk shall designate the bill. to facilitate the export of United States artificial intelligence systems, computing hardware and standards
▶ 2:44:50Without objection, the first reading is dispensed within and the bills considered read and open to amendment at any point. Without objection, the fine amendment in the nature of a substitute circulated to members in advance shall be considered as read and will be treated as original text for purposes of the amendment. Do any members seek Representative Fine.
▶ 2:45:08Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, under your leadership, we have spent a lot of time talking about AI, the risks, particularly from China, and the importance of the United States being the country that's setting the agenda and the standards because what we're going through with AI right now is much akin to VHS or Betamax or Macintosh versus Windows. There's going to be one standard that ends up being the standard for the world.
▶ 2:45:34The question that we have is it going to be ours or is it going to be the Communist Party of China? Who's going to win the AI arms race? It's not only it's not only what we're using in our country or what they're using in their country, but it's what is the rest of the country using as well. We want to ensure that our allies and partners build on their AI capabilities using the US technology stack.
▶ 2:45:55And that's why President Trump has an AI action plan to win that arms race um which prioritizes exporting our full AI stack to our allies and partners. But it has not been codified into law yet. What my bill does is it codifies and and strengthens President Trump's plan to export our full AI stack by doing a number of things.
▶ 2:46:16It directs the Secretary of Commerce to establish a program receiving proposals from industry groups to facilitate secure expert exports of the US full AI stack to allies and partners. It eliminates foreign barriers by requiring the Secretary of State to develop a diplomatic strategy for easing US AI companies access to foreign markets, countering authoritarian influence, and promoting AI governance approaches that reflect American values. It directs it.
▶ 2:46:42We study global AI deployment by directing commerce and the ODNI to conduct the study on the benefits and impacts of the global deployment of US AI capabilities. We make sure there's security in US semiconductor products by directing commerce, state, defense, and energy to work with foreign purchasers to institute security measures preventing adversary access to US AI technology deployed abroad, including addressing adversary hardware and software within foreign purchaser supply chains.
▶ 2:47:10We're going to create an AI full stack confidence initiative directing commerce, state, and the industry consorcia to develop standards and best practices to improve confidence of US AI products among foreign purchasers. And finally, an export success tracker establishing a bianual public report for the next five years measuring US AI market share globally across five metrics.
▶ 2:47:34national computing capacity, AI chip design share, US operated data center share, AI model usage by tokens processed, and cloud computing revenue. This will allow the public to understand precisely the state of play of the AI arms race against the Chinese Communist Party. Again, one of us will win. It will be the US or it will be China. Should this bill become law, we will help ensure that it is the United States of America. And I hope everyone will support the bill. Thank you, Mr.
▶ 2:48:06Representative yields back. I'm going to move out of order for a moment and uh recognize ranking member Meeks uh as we've lost a a member of the House of Representatives, the the whole house. Ranking member Meeks, you're recognized for as much time as you need to. Yeah. Unfortunately, during the uh vote, I gained knowledge that uh this morning that Representative David Scott from Georgia uh passed away. Uh he's a friend.
▶ 2:48:36He was the uh uh brother-in-law of Hank Aaron in Georgia, an avid baseball fan, uh an avid individual uh who worked with um with with with a Georgia delegation and completely someone that was filled with respect uh in that regards and he's going to be missed.
▶ 2:49:02Um he's an individual who has uh integrity and character. Uh and I I was just with him yesterday. We happened to serve on the financial services committee also where he sat next to me uh and we had a chat about the votes that were taking place and trying to use the electronic system.
▶ 2:49:24uh and to hear of his uh unfortunate uh passing uh today uh is just something that uh is hit hits hard uh to lose a member in that regards and I thank the uh chairman to give me time to to acknowledge him in that
▶ 2:49:41Absolutely. Ranking member Meeks and uh thank you.
▶ 2:49:46We'll continue on with regular order here. Do any other members seek Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I also extend my sincere condolences to Representative Scott's family and friends. We worked together on a number of issues when he was uh ranking member of the agriculture committee, and it's a it's a it's a grave shock. Thank you for recognizing him, Mr. Meeks. um on this bill.
▶ 2:50:12Uh this is an interesting situation because we essentially have a tech bill that is coming through HVAC and I appreciate the sponsor's efforts to create a comprehensive strategy around exporting AI. Um but I do have concerns as a member of the judiciary committee and the co-chair of the monopoly busters caucus and a member who has many of these AI companies in my district and my region.
▶ 2:50:36I've been tracking very closely the AI industry both in terms of the benefits that AI can provide to our society but also in the context of competition and markets. Export controls have an important role to play in the AI market. And this bill essentially codifies President Trump's July 2025 executive order.
▶ 2:50:57The approach marshals taxpayer funded resources to artificially prop up a handful of corporations rather than having them compete on their own merits in a free market. When chat GPT became popular in 2023, it seemed like the market was poised for robust competition with a new crop of Silicon Valley challengers like Stability AI and Inflection AI.
▶ 2:51:21Three years later, it is very clear that the AI industry has now become consolidated in the hands of the usual suspects. Google, Microsoft, Meta, Microsoftbacked open AI and Google Googlebacked anthropic. These giant companies believe in a specific type of AI that training models on vast amounts of labeled data using energyintensive data centers will unlock the next generation of innovation.
▶ 2:51:50But that's not the only model of AI that could work. Startups across the United States are exploring an alternative model that relies less on labeled data and more on reinforcement learning. The problem is not that big the big AI model is wrong. The problem is that we are quickly betting our entire economy on hoping that it's right and pushing out better models that might be there. There's no doubt that there are real benefits to AI.
▶ 2:52:18They help us do more with less by automating complex tasks, advancing our infrastructure, and improving our decision-making. But they also come with great risk. AI chatbots have caused children to die by suicide. Algorithms have erroneously denied life-saving health insurance claims, and autonomous weapons have resulted in civilian casualties abroad.
▶ 2:52:41Now, we can debate all day about whether the benefits outweigh the risks, but the reality is that trillions of dollars are being invested in the infrastructure to develop AI even as the government has lagged far behind in making appropriate regulations to manage the risks that we know are there. Meanwhile, only billions of dollars are being spent by people and companies to use the AI.
▶ 2:53:06More money has been put into the AI infrastructure than the amount that we spent on the Manhattan project and the Apollo program combined. It is a risky bet that if wrong could devastate our economy on a scale like we saw in the 2008 financial crisis. Instead of facilitating true competition between a diverse set of AI models, this bill essentially gives a government handout to the largest AI companies.
▶ 2:53:34It gives free advertising by the commerce department on behalf of the companies by launching a quote confidence initiative to promote their standards and products. It sets up an industry hotline for companies to essentially quickly remove any barriers that might exist. It leverages diplomatic resources to ease access to foreign markets for these companies.
▶ 2:53:56essentially taking a state department that is supposed to quote protect and promote US security, prosperity, and democratic values and shape an international environment in which all Americans can thrive end quote and instead turns it into sort of a trade association for corporate AI that may very well disregard the harms to ordinary Americans in communities across our country.
▶ 2:54:20This is not the working of a free market, but rather a market that's distorted by the government lifting up just a very few companies. Something that could quickly become a preemptive bailout. And so I caution against making the same mistake that we made in 2008. Finally, just briefly, I want to address the common argument that export controls will restrict innovation and allow China to win.
▶ 2:54:44What this these arguments miss is the fact that we need a truly competitive market to unlock a version of AI that maximizes the benefits, minimizes costs, and meets high standards of accuracy and security. So, I will be voting no and I urge my colleagues to vote no as well. I yield
▶ 2:55:00Do any other members seek recognition?
▶ 2:55:02And uh I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman. I also have some unanimous consent requests.
▶ 2:55:07Fire away. I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record a March 2026 Time article entitled, "We must prepare for an AI bubble." Now,
▶ 2:55:16without objection,
▶ 2:55:17a July 2025 economist article entitled, "America is easing chip export controls at exactly the wrong time." a February 2025 New York Times article entitled, "Stop worshiping the American Tech Giants
▶ 2:55:33and a an April 2026 press statement entitled House Foreign Affairs Committee must oppose the full AI stack export promotion act."
▶ 2:55:43Without objection.
▶ 2:55:44Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 2:55:46Do any other members seek recognition? Thank you, member. [snorts] To lead in the AI race, it is critical that we are exporting the US AI stack globally in a safe, competitive, and transparent manner. And I don't agree with many aspects of the Trump administration's AI action policy action plan.
▶ 2:56:06I do agree that we must ensure that the US AI stack is deployed abroad in a manner so that it can be the stack of choice for our partners and allies. Uh let me also say uh I just wanted to make sure that the record was clear. Uh I was going to ask Mr. Fine and Mr. Fine worked out. I just wanted to have a a clear record uh in regards to statements uh that was attributed to uh Representative Louu.
▶ 2:56:35So I asked to have the transcription of what Mr. Lou said so that the record is clear what he said uh in regards to second rate military. And I read uh this is the transcription. The third fatal flaw that was war of this war has shown this unconstitutional war even against a even against a second rate military.
▶ 2:57:02We can't stop damage to our military bases and operation and operating locations. I previously served on active duty in the US military and we have an amazing air force. One reason that one reason is that we gained air superiority every time very quickly. That's what we did in Iran. We had air superiority qui very quickly and we have it right now.
▶ 2:57:32And despite that, we could not stop Iranian drones and missiles hitting over 20 operating operating locations, including approximately 13 US military bases. This is a second rate military and our defense countermeasures could not stop these attacks. That is the transcription. Wanted to be clear that he did not call the US military a second rate military.
▶ 2:58:00he was spoke of the Iranian military and I just want to make sure that the record is clear and correct and maybe Mr. Uh Fine wants to uh uh acknowledge that of what he said and I yield back the balance of my time.
▶ 2:58:18Do any other members seek recognition? Representative Castro.
▶ 2:58:21Uh thank you chairman. I also want to extend my condolences on the passing of David Scott of Georgia um to his family and want to say thank you for his longtime service to the people of this country and in his district in the US House of Representatives and want to speak on this bill now. Um, I think the the goal of the bill in terms of promoting an American industry is one that we see across many American industries.
▶ 2:58:52Generally, we want United States businesses to compete and win across the world. I think that's a good thing. Uh, so in a sense, it's standard practice. Um, there are a few things that I'm concerned about here though. uh one is that AI is still a nent technology.
▶ 2:59:15I feel like the Congress, including specifically all of us as members of and I would suspect many people in the administration, do not fully understand it, grasp it, or understand the consequences of the technology yet to push forward such an aggressive bill where we're going to be knocking down regulatory barriers, for example, and accelerating the promotion of it without fully grappling with it.
▶ 2:59:45First, you'll notice that Congress has been especially differential to 21st century In other words, we haven't legislated much and therefore the executive branch has not um regulated much. I'll start with something that wasn't 21st century and that was the internet. You know, 1990s technology where it came into full fruition, never really legislated on that much or regulated on that much.
▶ 3:00:13Uh let's take another on crypto a little bit on finance but not much. Uh drones haven't really legislated much on that or regulated much on that. Uh and artificial intelligence is another one. a firmly 21st century technology that's still nent, still quickly developing that we've not really grappled with uh the way that we should. Uh, and so this bill to me feels like we're kind of getting ahead of ourselves.
▶ 3:00:42I think you got to do a lot more groundwork before you get to this point. But the second thing that I'm also concerned about, and really one of the main reasons that I'm going to vote against this bill is the rampant corruption within this administration and self-deing that we've seen from members of the administration and unfortunately from family members. I just want to give you one example and I'm just going to use the president.
▶ 3:01:09Uh the president and his family sold a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial to the UAE for $500 million after which the administration approved the sale of highly advanced chips to the UAE for their AI industry despite a deeply troubling record of cooperation between the UAE and China. And so either selfdeeing or the appearance of selfdeing is so significant that we have an obligation to address it.
▶ 3:01:39And the American people deserve to know that their government is acting in the public interest not in the pecuniary interest of a particular person who happens to be a government official or extended family or their investment portfolio.
▶ 3:01:56Uh so for me to support this bill uh one thing is I'd want it to clearly require that in the event a commerce or state department official or their immediate family owns or has a significant ownership stake in a company that official recuse themselves from any efforts to promote that company under the law. The same should apply to any companies owned by the president vice president or their immediate family. So as a starter absent that language I can't support this legislation.
▶ 3:02:25I would also add that all of us as members of Congress uh we have been under fire for owning stock. Uh there's even been examination of family members for example of members of Congress who own stock. Uh I want to say for the record that you know I support efforts to prevent members of Congress from owning stock. I've never owned stock during my time in Congress. I don't think I've owned stock since like I don't know 2003 or 2004 when I owned 30 shares of something.
▶ 3:02:54Um but you know absent that I can't support this legislation and I urge others to withhold their support as well. I yield back. Gentleman yields back. Do any other members seek recognition? Recognize myself. I have heard it said many times. I've said it myself uh that the US must win the AI arms race. And we could put many fine points on why.
▶ 3:03:21Uh that is why the Trump administration rolled out its AI action plan that lays out clear and important recommendations for meeting that objective. Winning requires ensuring that our allies AI buildout comes from an American stack, an American AI stack, not a technology controlled by the Chinese Communist Party like Huawei.
▶ 3:03:45This bill achieves that goal by going on offense around the world to fasttrack the secure export of the full American AI stack to our allies. America is the premier partner of choice and this bill helps further demonstrate that truth. I want to thank Representative Fine for leading on this critical issue, for helping our allies, for helping the United States of America. I support this measure and I strongly urge my colleagues to do so as well. Any other members seek recognition?
▶ 3:04:13Seeing none, I move that the committee report I'm sorry. Are there any uh being no further discussion, do any other members have amendments? Seeing no amendments, I move that the committee report HR6996 as amended to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no.
▶ 3:04:35Opinion of the chair, the eyes have it and the motion is agreed to. May
▶ 3:04:38I get a roll call vote?
▶ 3:04:39You may. A roll call vote has been requested pursuant to the chair's previous announcement. That vote will be Thank you. Pursuant to notice, I now call up the Baltic Security Assessment Act of 2025. The bill was circulated in advance and the clerk shall designate the bill.
▶ 3:05:04to require the Secretary of State in coordination with the Secretary of Defense to submit a report on emerging threats posed to the Republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and for other purposes.
▶ 3:05:14Without objection, the first reading is dispensed with and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point. Do any members seek
▶ 3:05:25Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia are among the United States closest partners and friends, and no NATO allies are more acutely aware of the threats to NATO from Russia. Long before Russia's renewed full-scale attack invasion of Ukraine, Russia has employed cyber attacks different from disinformation campaigns, influence operations, acts of sabotage, and other hybrid tactics to attempt to destabilize the Baltic States. This bill is simple.
▶ 3:05:55It expresses Congress's commitment to our Baltic friends and directs the executive branch to do a more comprehensive assessment of the threats that they face and our posture to confront them. It is also important that the committee is acting on this bill today as the Trump administration continues to undermine the transatlantic relationship and calls into question the United States commitment to NATO. We are already seeing them suffer as the administration indefinitely delays critical arms deliveries to Lithuania and Estonia.
▶ 3:06:26This bill demonstrates that Congress stands with our Baltic allies, recognizes their contributions to the NATO alliance, and remains committed to their security. So, I strongly support this measure and yield back.
▶ 3:06:39Do any other members seek recognition? Recognize myself. The Baltic Security Assessment Act is about basic national security. Strong allies in the Baltic region mean a stronger, safer United States. As Secretary of State Rubio and others have warned, we face growing threats from adversaries like Russia and China, including in so-called grrey zone tactics. This legislation responds directly by requiring a forward-looking threat assessment that accounts for both conventional military risks as well as hybrid measures.
▶ 3:07:08It also calls for an analysis of the US and NATO's ability to counter these threats, getting necessary information to Congress as we conduct oversight of our nation's foreign policy. This bill also calls for the strengthening of economic and security ties in the Baltics, rewarding these allies for taking their security seriously. I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, the committee will move to consideration of amendments. Any member wish to offer an amendment?
▶ 3:07:35There being no amendments, I move that the committee report HR5543 to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no. Opinion of the chair, the eyes have it. The motion is agreed to.
▶ 3:07:48Mr. Chairman, request a roll call vote.
▶ 3:07:49A roll call vote has been requested. Pursuant to the chair's previous announcement, that vote will be Thank you. Pursuant to notice, I now call up the Stride Act. The bill was circulated in advance, and the clerk shall designate the bill.
▶ 3:08:20to provide for multilateral semiconductor technology supply chain coordination and for other purposes. Without objection, the first reading is dispensed with and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point. Is there any discussion on the bill?
▶ 3:08:32Mr. Chairman,
▶ 3:08:34Um, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I support this measure by Rep. Hisa and want to thank him and the chairman for working to reach a compromise on this bill. That said, I think this was one of the bills that would have benefited from greater time for public debate and scrutiny. Despite the changes reflected in the ANS base text, I know that industry stakeholders, outside experts, and some of our allies have concerns about this bill.
▶ 3:08:58After the markup, I hope the sponsors can work to hear out and try to address any remaining credible concerns about the bill so that we end up with as strong and effective a final product as possible. And I yield back.
▶ 3:09:11Gentle lady yields back. Recognize myself. This bill is about getting America's closest allies to take the AI arms race with the Chinese Communist Party as seriously as the United States of America does. The United States has limited its own companies from selling chipmaking equipment to Chinese chip makers like CXMT and YMTC. But many of our closest allies have yet to follow our leadership. Instead, they're filled the gap and padded their own wallets in many different cases.
▶ 3:09:38And this bill directs the Secretary of State to align allied technology measures with ours. If the Secretary of State determines a country fails to implement sufficient export controls on chipmaking equipment, they must work alongside the Secretary of Commerce and inter agency partners to recommend a set of actions to address the national security impact. I want to thank Mr. Heisenga for his work on this legislation. I urge my colleagues to do the same. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, the committee will move to consideration of amendments.
▶ 3:10:07Does any member wish to offer an amendment? There being no amendments. Hold on. Maybe there's an
▶ 3:10:17Got it. We do have somebody coming to
▶ 3:10:27Hello, Mr.
▶ 3:10:32No problem at all. Take your time. You're good. Are you here to speak or offer an I am speaking on the bill right now.
▶ 3:10:46Um, if you don't mind, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to take a moment of personal privilege. You may
▶ 3:10:51and uh introduce uh John Balden. John II over here. John, stand up. Uh he is the winner of our art uh the app challenge that that Congress puts on. And uh we're very pleased that he's uh he's from Ashtimo just outside of Kalamazoo. Mr. asked actually is from Michigan as well originally. Originally, he's a Fidian
▶ 3:11:15Uh but uh I just want to welcome John. So, thanks for for your time.
▶ 3:11:19You're not on camera back there. You should come up here and stand next to Representative Isizena a minute so that
▶ 3:11:24Look at this. He's
▶ 3:11:25Come on up. It's it's it's like the Price is Right. Yeah. Come on up.
▶ 3:11:29You can tell your friends to find you on
▶ 3:11:32Funny [cough] and stand right here. It's great.
▶ 3:11:37He's going to speak for a minute. You could stand there by him if you want.
▶ 3:11:41Representative Isizena, you're
▶ 3:11:43Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, securing the global semiconductor technology supply chain is critical to the defense of the United States and allied nations security, economic competitiveness, and technological leadership. It's no secret that the Chinese Communist Party and other foreign adversaries will stop at nothing in their pursuit of total domination of this vital supply chain.
▶ 3:12:08All of which is done to feed its rapid military modernization and its security state apparatus which it deploys against its own citizens and exports to the region. HR6058 [snorts] the stride act plays a critical role in convening allies to establish a coordinated joint approach for export controls and other security mechanisms for semiconductor technology.
▶ 3:12:31Here we are not focused on a single choke point but rather on securing the entire AI stack end to end for ourselves and our allies. Moving forward our allies must do a better job of aligning with US export controls to stop fueling adversarial military buildup.
▶ 3:12:50For example, for example, uh intentionally or unintentionally backfilling US companies or failing to take adequate security measures to protect sensitive semiconductor technology designs or equipment undermines our uh shared national security interests.
▶ 3:13:07From tools for making China's uh advanced AI chips to basic semiconductors powering Russian and Iranian drones, the State Department must ensure that partner nations are working together to secure the vital semiconductor technology supply chain from bad actors. The ANS to the Stride Act was negotiated in a bipartisan fashion and establishes a clear process for achieving future semiconductor technology supply chain coordination and commitment.
▶ 3:13:36Moreover, this bill provides state and commerce with a roadmap for addressing non-compliance and how such decisions could impact national security. The Stride Act establishes clear duties and responsibilities for the State Department to carry out this diplom this diplomacy. More importantly, it also directs the secretary to keep Congress informed on which allies and partners are unwilling to come to the table and what steps should be taken to protect this critical technology. And Mr.
▶ 3:14:06Chairman, as I had said, I have a young man, John Balden, here with me today who won the Congressional App Challenge. And it's going to be young men like him and this generation which is going to advance the technology that our country is going to need to remain competitive and to remain the leaders in the world and uh that's the reason why we are doing this is for the future to make sure that we maintain our standing as a nation in on the world stage.
▶ 3:14:35So John thank you for your work. Mr. Chairman, thank you for your work and I look forward and I want to say thanks to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle as well as we work to uh to come up with this uh this ANS uh to the Stride Act uh so that we may advance forward together.
▶ 3:14:52John, how old are you?
▶ 3:14:54I'm 14 years old.
▶ 3:14:5514. So, you're not coming for Representative Heisenga's seat yet?
▶ 3:14:59Fortunately, Mr. Chairman, he's 11 years shy of constitutionally being able to take me on because I think he would be a tough adversary. So,
▶ 3:15:06good. Thanks for joining us.
▶ 3:15:09Thank you. And I yield back.
▶ 3:15:11Gentleman yields back. Uh does any member wish to offer an amendment?
▶ 3:15:21Sorry, Mr. Chairman. That would be me with my uh with my ANS.
▶ 3:15:25Very good. Uh you have an amendment at the desk.
▶ 3:15:28I do.
▶ 3:15:29Clerk shall distribute the Heisenga amendment in the nature of a substitute number 86. clerk shall report the amendment.
▶ 3:15:43Amendment in the nature of a substitute number 86 to HR6058 offered by by Mr. Heisinga of Michigan.
▶ 3:15:50Without objection, further reading of the amendment is dispensed with and the gentleman is recognized for five minutes on the amendment.
▶ 3:15:55Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. I won't take all five minutes of that. Uh but this ANS was negotiated as I had said in my in my uh introductory remarks. Uh this uh this uh ANS uh was has a bipartisan uh negotiated uh language in it establishes a clear process for achieving future semiconductor technology supply chain and uh and uh we're looking for coordination and commitment from our allies and
▶ 3:16:25our partners. And I want to say thank you to uh to my friends across the aisle for uh coming together and uh having this amendment in the nature of a substitute that I believe is going to improve the bill and get us to a spot where we are going to be able to have significant bipartisan support. So with that, I urge my colleagues to support the ANS and the underlying bill and I yield back.
▶ 3:16:49Is there any further discussion on the There being no further discussion, do any members are we going to vote on this one first or
▶ 3:17:08do any other members wish to offer an amendment to the Heisenga amendment in the nature of a substitute? Seeing none, being no further amendments, the question now occurs on the amendment in the nature of a substitute offered by Representative Heisenga. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no. Opinion of the chair, the eyes have it. The amendment is agreed to.
▶ 3:17:38Do any other members wish to offer an
▶ 3:17:42seeing none, there being no further amendments, I move that the committee report HR6058 as amended to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no. Opinion of the chairs, the eyes have it. The motion is agreed to.
▶ 3:17:59A recorded vote has been requested pursuant to the chair's previous announcement. This vote will be Thank you. Pursuant to notice, I now call up HR 8320, the USA 6G Global Leadership Act. The bill was circulated in advance, and the clerk shall designate the bill.
▶ 3:18:28HR 8320 to require additional duties of the ambassador at large for cyerspace and digital policy with respect to the United States diplomatic efforts ahead of certain international conferences and for other purposes.
▶ 3:18:40Without objection, the first reading is dispensed with and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point. Would the author would like to be recognized?
▶ 3:18:46Yes, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 3:18:47You are recognized.
▶ 3:18:48Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Meeks, thank you to the committee for supporting my bill, the USA 6G global leadership act. The race to 6G, the next generation of wireless technology that will follow 5G is underway and America cannot afford to fall behind. 6G will power advanced technologies like AIdriven networks and other telecommunication methods.
▶ 3:19:11With leaders like Nokia headquartered in Dallas and major employers like AT&T and Samsung driving innovation across North Texas, my district is at the forefront of next generation telecommunications. My bill ensures that we, not our adversaries, continue to set the standards while strengthening our national security and economic competitiveness.
▶ 3:19:34Specifically, the bill makes clear that the US should leverage all diplomatic and economic tools to support US companies and counter Chinese-backed enterprises. It tasked the relevant State Department positions with coordinating across federal agencies to promote US aligned candidates for leadership and international standards organizations and advance US priorities and international telecom standards and governance.
▶ 3:19:59It requires reporting on Chinese and Russian efforts to influence these processes to promote digital repression and leverage their positions in international telecom organizations to advance geopolitical objectives. and it requires a comprehensive US 6G global dominance strategy.
▶ 3:20:19This bipartisan bill would support our companies in North Texas and across the nation, strengthen our national security, and counter strategic competition from China and other adversaries in emerging technology standards. These technologies will define the future, and if we want to lead the world in innovation, we must show up, compete, and win. I encourage my colleagues to vote in favor of this measure. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back.
▶ 3:20:45Any other members seek recognition? Representative Biggs.
▶ 3:20:49Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This legislation ensures the United States leads global efforts to develop and deploy next generation telecommunications as we approach key international conferences that will shape the future of G6.
▶ 3:21:07At its core, the bill puts the ambassador at large for cyerspace and digital policy in charge of coordinating US diplomatic strategy at the international telecommunication conference and the world radio communication conference. These are not just technical meetings. They are where the rules of the digital world are written.
▶ 3:21:36At the ITU, countries make decisions on global standards and spectrum that influence how networks are built. And at the 2027 World Radio Communication Conference, spectrum decisions will help determine who leads in 6G and other emerging technologies, including space-based communications. The Chinese Communist Party understands this and is working aggressively to dominate these forums.
▶ 3:22:06They are funding research and development to shape standards, backing PRC companies and expanding their influence in standards organizations and the ITU. If we fail to leave to lead, we risk surrendering global communications to Communist Party control, handing Beijing the power to surveil, censor, and weaponize the world's networks against us.
▶ 3:22:36This bill fights back. It ensures America leads and stops the CCP from rigging the game as they work to dominate global The stakes could not be any more clear. Whoever controls 6G and next generation satellite system controls the global economy and the future of national security. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation and I yield
▶ 3:23:05Gentle lady yields back. Any further discussion? Recognize myself. The race for global leadership in 6G is here and we have to ensure that the US maintains technological leadership. to do so. The State Department has a critical role to play in all of that. The cyerspace and digital policy team will be responsible for building support for US position on spectrum allocation at the International Telecommunications Union known as the ITU World Radio Communications Conference.
▶ 3:23:32This bill codifies the ambassador at large for cyerspace and digital policies role in leading the diplomatic efforts at that conference and it requires regular engagements with Congress to ensure that we have oversight over the department's preparations ahead of critical upcoming events with the ITU. Additionally, the bill would require a one-time report on China's efforts to shape standards throughout the ITU so that the US remains ahead of the curve.
▶ 3:23:57It also requires that the State Department craft a strategy to promote the use of US 6G technology around the globe. This is about putting American technology first and ensuring safe and secure next generation telecom. But I want to thank Representative Johnson and Representative Biggs for their work on this legislation and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting it. Do any other members seek recognition? Being no further discussion, do any members wish to offer an amendment?
▶ 3:24:22There being no further amendments, I move that the committee report HR 8320 to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no. Opinion of the chair, the eyes have it and the motion is agreed to.
▶ 3:24:37Mr. Chairman, request a roll call vote.
▶ 3:24:39A roll call vote has been requested. Pursuant to the jur's previous announcement, that vote will be Thank you. Pursuant to notice, I now call up HR 6322, the Stop Stealing Our Chips Act. The bill was circulated in advance, and the clerk shall designate the bill.
▶ 3:24:58HR 6322 to amend the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 to establish a whistleblower incentive program and provide provide protections to
▶ 3:25:07Without objection, the first reading is dispensed with and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point. And I now recognize myself uh for some discussion. The Trump administration has made it clear that AI chip smuggling and other export control violations are direct threats to US national security.
▶ 3:25:25As we saw in recent as in in recent 2.5 billion chip smuggling case of Nvidia AI chips to China, adversaries like China, Russia, Iran are working around the clock to gain access to our cutting edge technology. It is critical that we think creatively to step up our enforcement efforts and assist BIS in its critical mission. Let's be clear, China is stealing chips because China wants our chips.
▶ 3:25:54That's why they're stealing them. They cannot compete without American chips. Full stop. This is a great bill to boost enforcement of our export controls by building a whistleblower incentive program for those individuals who see wrongdoing inside of companies. It's based on similar whistleblower incentive programs in existing laws for other sectors like securities.
▶ 3:26:16This bill will help BIS develop the leads it needs around the globe to protect America, whether it's Russian drone component networks or Chinese AI chip smuggling rings. And I want to thank Representative Kaine for leading on this issue. and I strongly urge my colleagues to support this measure. Do any other members seek recognition? Representative
▶ 3:26:34Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to speak in support of the Stop Stealing Our Chips Act. Chips are not just the kind that power our smartphones and home appliances. The most advanced chips are the cornerstone of America's technological leadership. My district is home to key innovators in the chip industry, ranging from Texas Instruments headquarters, one of the top semiconductor companies in the world, to Corvo, which produces critical components for key defense technologies.
▶ 3:27:02I have seen firsthand the talent that we have and their desire to maintain our edge and innovation. Our people benefit from these technologies every day. Our allies rely upon it. Our adversaries covet it. As we see in the news over and over again, foreign adversaries like China, Russia, and Iran constantly work to divert and smuggle our products.
▶ 3:27:23I am proud to be the Democratic co-lead on this bill, which is a common sense, bipartisan step to protect our most sensitive supply chains and ensure that the innovations powering our economy and safety stay in American hands. Establishing a whistleblower incentive program at the Bureau of Industry and Security or BIS would strengthen export control enforcement and empower employees to report export control violations. Many thanks to Representative Kaine for his leadership in advancing this bill.
▶ 3:27:52I look forward to working together on getting this bill passed into law. Looking forward, I urge this committee to consider additional measures like this one, including my bill with representatives Moyen and Kain to adding the whistleblowers aiding national security act, which establishes a corresponding whistleblower incentive program for defense articles and services.
▶ 3:28:13A protected pathway within the State Department for whistleblowers to report their company's violations would deter violations, enhance compliance, and ensure that our most critical defense technologies don't fall into the wrong hands. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back.
▶ 3:28:28Any further discussion? Seeing none, does any member wish to offer an
▶ 3:28:34Mr. Chairman.
▶ 3:28:36Yes, Mr. Heisinga.
▶ 3:28:38I have an amendment at the desk.
▶ 3:28:40Clerk shall distribute the amendment.
▶ 3:28:44Clerk shall report the amendment.
▶ 3:28:48Amendment number 56 to HR 6322 offered by Mr. Heisinga of Michigan.
▶ 3:28:52Without objection, further reading of the amendment is dispensed with and representatives recognized.
▶ 3:28:56Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm offering this amendment on behalf of Mr. Kaine of New Jersey. This amendment provides technical changes to the underlying bill to ensure that no other whistleblower laws are unintentionally affected. I believe this has been worked out with the uh minority side as well and so I urge uh support of this amendment and passage of the bill and with that I yield back.
▶ 3:29:18Do any other members seek recognition? There being no further discussion the question now occurs on the amendment offered by representative Heisenga. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.
▶ 3:29:28All those opposed signify by saying no. Opinion of the chairs the eyes have it and the amendment is agreed to.
▶ 3:29:34Any further amendments? Seeing none, being no further amendments, I move that the committee report HR6322 as amended to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no. Opinion of the chair, the eyes have it. The motion is agreed to.
▶ 3:29:56Mr. Chairman, request a roll call vote.
▶ 3:29:58A roll call vote has been requested pursuant to the chair's previous announcement. That vote will be Thank you. Pursuant to notice, I now call up HR8283, the Deterring American AI Model Theft Act of 2026. Bill was circulated in advance, and the clerk shall designate that bill.
▶ 3:30:19to prevent foreign adversaries from threatening the national security of the United States by extracting key technical features of closed source American-owned artificial intelligence models and for other purposes.
▶ 3:30:29Without objection, the first reading is dispensed with and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point. Does any member wish to have discussion on the bill? You're
▶ 3:30:37Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Many thanks to Representative Hisinga for leading this bill, which starts to address the important new challenge regarding distillation attacks against US AI labs. This is a deeply concerning problem that first became widely known in February when Anthropic revealed that it found industrialcale distillation campaigns by three Chinese AI labs, Deepseek, Moonshot, and Miniax. This this attempt to mirror and steal the capabilities of American models is problematic and must stop.
▶ 3:31:07That said, given how new this problem set is, we must learn more about it. And I do not think this committee nor the public has grappled with the policy changes posed by distillation attacks. Ideally, we would have had hearings and briefings on this topic with the administration to learn what the administration is doing to address this challenge. And it would have been helpful to give Oh, excuse me. To give [clears throat] the administration and outside experts more time to adequately review the solutions offered in this legislation.
▶ 3:31:38Given the stakes of the challenge, it is important that Congress gets this right. So, while I will support the bill, I hope this committee will work to refine the legislation in the coming weeks and months to make sure it's the very best way to prevent and defer defer future future attacks. And I yield back.
▶ 3:31:54Recognize myself. [snorts] Earlier this month, this month, the US AI lab and thropic released its newest model, Mythos. It is likely the most capable cyber hacking hacking model ever, capable of finding more zero-day vulnerabilities in software than most any of our experts to date. Imagine if the Chinese Communist Party got its hands on this model. No American would be safe from China's aggressive hacking campaign.
▶ 3:32:25For years, China has tried to access tried to get access to the essential computing capacity that they need in order to compete against us. Now, they've turned to distillation. Through distillation, China can learn the key characteristics of our models and make them in a very inexpensive way. Distillation is no different than China getting its hands on thousands or even millions of our AI chips. Mr. Heisenga's bill addresses this crisis.
▶ 3:32:51Entities that conduct these malicious attacks will be eligible to be added to the Commerce Department's entity list and even face sanctions. I urge my colleagues to support this measure. Is there any further discussion? Representative Heisen. Uh thank you, Mayor uh Mr. Chairman. I appreciate uh you taking up 8283. Uh and u I'm proud to have been working on this.
▶ 3:33:16Um, the American Frontier AI labs face routine distillation attacks or as we're as we're calling them distillation attacks, but model extraction attacks to be more specific from foreign adversaries. Many of the most advanced AI models owned by US companies are closed source models, meaning their unique technical characteristics are not openly shared or published.
▶ 3:33:40Never nevertheless the primary PRCAI companies systematically extract key information such as model weights, architectures, and other technology characteristics from these proprietary US models. The model thief then uses that information to build competing models at a lower cost, bypassing uh compute restrictions without having to invest in front-end R&D to train that model.
▶ 3:34:08If this sounds like a typical playbook for how China operates in the global market, bingo, you're right on. Distillation attacks are the latest frontier of Chinese economic coercion, export control, evasion, and theft, outright theft of US intellectual property. These attacks pose a direct threat to the national security of the United States and the economic competitiveness of US companies.
▶ 3:34:32American AI models are demonstrating transformative cyber capabilities and the United States must prevent China from stealing these technological advancements. That's why I introduced my bill HR8283, the deterring American AI model theft act, which identifies entities engaged in distillation attacks and those that assist in such attacks and cuts them off from foreign technology.
▶ 3:34:58This bill requires the com commerce department to study these illicit distillation networks and coordinate with the inter agencies to publish best practices for detecting, preventing, and responding to model extraction attacks. Additionally, this bill establishes a publicly accessible AI model extraction attackers list to inform the public about these attacks and gives BIS the authority to add any AI model extraction attacker to the entity list.
▶ 3:35:28I want to thank House Intel Chairman Crawford, China Select Chairman Molinar, and Subcommittee Chairman Lawler for their support in co-sponsoring and working on this measure, as well as my friends on the other side of the aisle. Uh we continue to lead in the AI arms race. Mr. Chairman, America must stop its adversaries from free riding on American intellectual property and R&D.
▶ 3:35:51This bill does just that and I urge my colleagues to support this bill which was negot negotiated on a bipartisan basis because we all see the problem. Uh with that I yield back.
▶ 3:36:02Any further discussion? Seeing none, does any member wish to offer an
▶ 3:36:07Representatives recognized.
▶ 3:36:08Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk. Clerk shall distribute the amendment. Clerk shall report the
▶ 3:36:16Amendment number 88 to HR 8283 offered by Mr. Heisinga of Michigan. On page four, line 23.
▶ 3:36:22Without objection, further reading of the amendment is dispensed with. Representative is recognized.
▶ 3:36:26Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh very briefly, this amendment is a technical edit uh clarifying that the commerce department has the sole authority to carry out the duties of this bill. There was discussion of commerce, I'm sorry, of state department and others being involved.
▶ 3:36:42Uh we have narrowed this down uh in our discussions with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle uh for it to lie solely within the secretary of commerce and uh that is their responsibility to carry out the duties of this bill. So uh with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
▶ 3:37:00Any further discussion of the amendment? There being no further discussion, the question now occurs on the amendment offered by Representative Heisenga. Those in favor signify by saying I. I.
▶ 3:37:08All those opposed signify by saying no. Opinion of the chair the eyes have it and the amendment is agreed to. Are there any further amendments? Seeing I move that the committee report HR 8283 as amended to the house with the favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no. Opinion of the chair, the eyes have it and the motion is agreed to. Roll call vote has been requested pursuant to the chair's previous announcement.
▶ 3:37:39That vote will be Thank you. Pursuant to notice, I now call up HR 8284, the Bureau of Industry and Security License Administration Enhancement Act. The bill was circulated in advance and the clerk shall designate that bill
▶ 3:38:05HR 8284 to enhance the administration of export control licenses under the export control reform act of 2018 and for other
▶ 3:38:14Without objection, the first reading is dispensed with and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point. I'm going to recognize myself for a couple of moments. Export controls only work if they actually deny adversaries access to American technology. Right now, often they don't. This committee's data shows the Biden administration's BIS approved 60 billion in licenses for Huawei, 40 billion for SMIC in just 6 months.
▶ 3:38:43In the first quarter of 2022 alone, BIS approved more than 23 billion in licenses to entity list companies and denied only 8% of applications. A presumption of denial that denies almost nothing is not a presumption of denial. It's a rubber stamp. The BIS License Administration Enhancement Act fixes this issue among many others. It requires the department to clarify what the presumption of denial standards entail. I want to thank my colleague, Mr.
▶ 3:39:12McCll, for leading this important legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support it. You seek recognition?
▶ 3:39:18I do.
▶ 3:39:18Gentle lady is recognized.
▶ 3:39:19Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, I support this measure. In particular, it is critical that Congress codify the technical advisory committees that the Trump administration effectively brought to a halt without explanation. Why would the agency not want voluntary technical feedback and assistance from companies that are often global leaders in their sectors? Why would we not want to harness private sector information about deeply complicated global supply chains?
▶ 3:39:46It is important that the technical advisory committees are reinstated and put to work. For that reason, I will support this measure and I yield back.
▶ 3:39:55Gentle lady yields back. Is there any further discussion?
▶ 3:39:59Uh yeah, Mr. Chairman, chairman ameritus is recognized. I thank the chairman for that and I want to thank you uh first of all for tackling this very important issue that um I think is probably the most important national security issue uh facing not only this committee but this Congress um and it is within the jurisdiction of the committee and I'm delighted to see you championing it and taking it to the extent that you have.
▶ 3:40:27Um I want to thank my colleague particularly Mr. Lawler and Old Chefsky um for co-sponsoring this legislation. We're currently engaged in a defining global technology competition. To win that, the United States needs an export control system that is collaborative, and highly effective.
▶ 3:40:52Congress created the Bureau of Industry and and uh security and the e export controls we rely on today. And while some have viewed these controls through a trade lens, this committee's long recognized the true purpose, repeatedly making changes to address national security shortfalls as new threats emerge. At its core, this bill is a good governance bill. It does three critical things.
▶ 3:41:19First, it brings shadow regulations into daylight by forcing private quote is informed unquote letters to become public rules. Second, it modernizes our technical advisory committees to ensure we are getting advice from national security experts and not just commercial interest.
▶ 3:41:41And third, it requires the administration to report to Congress on its most complex semiconductor regulations, including the new foundry rule and the so-called white Right now, a company may receive a private notice from BIS called a quote is informed letter restricting their technology while their competitor operates freely without knowing the rules have in fact changed.
▶ 3:42:11That uneven playing field stifles the very businesses we need to out innovate our adversaries. And furthermore, these letters result in national security decisions being made without a voice from the Department of War and State, the very agencies tasked with defending our nation and advancing our foreign policy. This bill fixes this problem by modernizing the system Congress built.
▶ 3:42:39It ensures that our national security experts at the Pentagon, the State Department, and Department of Energy have permanent formal seats at the table for these critical decisions. This legislation also brings those private shadow regulations into daylight. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. It says that if a national security threat is real, export controls must be made public.
▶ 3:43:08They must be clear and they must apply to everyone evenly and fairly. This gives American businesses the certainty they need to compete on the global stage. The bill also ensures the government is getting the right advice from outside experts on these rapidly evolving technologies. For too long, our technical advisory boards have been made up solely of industry voices.
▶ 3:43:35This bill modernizes those boards, mandates a balance of industry specialist, academic researchers, and national security experts. It also ensures the technical advice driving our export controls is based on a cleareyed view of the threat landscape. And finally, and crucially, the bill restores Congress's vital oversight role.
▶ 3:44:00When it comes to the most sensitive technologies, like high-end chips driving the AI revolution, we cannot just hope our export controls are working. Congress must verify it.
▶ 3:44:13This legislation requires the Department of Commerce to review and report to Congress on their recent actions, including the new foundry rule and the so-called white list as expanded controls on high bandwidth memory chips to prove these critical restrictions are actually keeping us safer.
▶ 3:44:34In order to win this technological competition, we need an export control system that gives American businesses predictability, gives our defense experts a voice, and gives Congress the visibility to hold the system accountable. This bill does all of that, and I think it's a good governance bill, and I urge my colleagues to support it. And I yield back the balance of my time.
▶ 3:45:00Gentleman yields back.
▶ 3:45:02Any further discussion? Does any member wish to offer an
▶ 3:45:12I have an amendment in the nature of a substitute. I get that right.
▶ 3:45:16Clerk shall distribute the amendment.
▶ 3:45:20Clerk shall report the amendment.
▶ 3:45:21The amendment has been distributed by electronic device.
▶ 3:45:25Uh amendment number 43 to HR8284 offered by Mr. McCall of Texas. Without objection, further reading of the amendment is dispensed with. Is gentleman wish to be recognized on?
▶ 3:45:36Uh I believe I've addressed the amendment adequately at this point.
▶ 3:45:39I think you did as well. Do any other members seek recognition? There being no further discussion, question now occurs on the amendment offered by Representative McCll. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no. opinion of the chair. The eyes have it and the amendment is agreed to. Any further amendments?
▶ 3:46:06There being no further amendments, I move that the committee report HR 8284 as amended to the house with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no. Opinion of the chair, the eyes have it and the motion is agreed to.
▶ 3:46:25I guess for a roll call vote. Roll call vote has been requested. Pursuant to the chair's previous announcement, that vote will also be postponed. Thank you. Pursuant to notice, I now call up the semi semiconductors controls effectiveness act of 2026. The bill was circulated in advance and the clerk shall designate the bill
▶ 3:46:48HR 8287 to require the assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research. Without objection, the first reading is dispensed with and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point. Anybody wish to be
▶ 3:47:02Representative Johnson.
▶ 3:47:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I support this measure by Representative Stanton. In October of 20 uh 2022, the Biden administration imposed extensive new controls on advanced chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China. The administration then updated those controls in the fall of 2023 and then again at the end of 2024.
▶ 3:47:25However, when we asked BIS to share with us the impact assessments, data and analysts analysis used to update those controls and to ensure that the controls were effective, BIS had nothing tangible to share. Now, we know that generally speaking, our controls are working. But we shouldn't govern by our gut, but rather by the facts.
▶ 3:47:45And given this committee's oversight role and the fact that the export control reform act calls on this to use export controls only after full consideration of the impact on the economy of the United States and only to the extent necessary. It is deeply troubling that nearly four years since the initial controls BIS has yet to share any concrete data, evidence or assessments on the controls impact with this committee.
▶ 3:48:13Representative Stanton's bill solves that problem by asking the INR Bureau and the State Department to conduct a comprehensive study on the impact of America's semicounter controls and report to Congress on those findings. This is a common sense measure that will help us in the administration refine controls to make them more effective and it will raise industry and public confidence in BIS and our export control regime. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back. Gently gentle lady yields back.
▶ 3:48:43Do any other members seek recognition? Representative Stan.
▶ 3:48:45Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. United States must win the economic and security battle with China. Protecting America's semiconductor advantage is at the center of this incred this important battle. US and allied and allied export controls on advanced semiconductor technologies imposed beginning in 2022 were designed to contra constrain China's AI and high-end chip development.
▶ 3:49:07However, since 2022, Beijing's long-standing drive for semiconductor self-reliance has accelerated, threatening domestic and allied companies and our national security. The Semiconductor Controls Effectiveness Act, which I introduced with Congressman Isa, requires comprehensive review of the impact and effectiveness of our semic semiconductor export controls on the PRC.
▶ 3:49:30This legislation aims to strengthen export controls on advanced AI chips and improve congressional oversight to prevent the flow of US technology to competitors. We need to understand the impact of our current export control regime on the PRC military intelligence and surveillance capabilities. The PRC's ability to develop, manufacture, and acquire advanced integrated circuits. And the PRC's indigenous semiconductor industry, its revenue, and global market share. We know the facts.
▶ 3:49:58Chinese semiconductor companies are rapidly growing. So now is the time to conduct a serious assessment of our export control regime to determine whether our current policies are having their intended effect. No such assessment can be made without the input of the semiconductor industry itself. Given the complex and deeply interconnected nature of the semiconductor supply chain, a proposal aimed at one part of the industry can have a disproportionate impacts across the technology stack.
▶ 3:50:28The feedback from the industry itself is critical to accomplish our mission of maintaining the United States technological edge and closing critical gaps in our export control regime. Notably, the bill also requires the assessment to include recommendations from state commerce, director of national intelligence as to how Congress can refine our existing export control regime, bolster enforcement efforts, and close diversion loopholes.
▶ 3:50:54Although this committee is taking action to prevent the the PRC from bypassing US export controls, it is critical that our national security agencies in partnership with the semiconductor industry provide Congress with recommendations as to what policy changes truly work and achieve the desired effect constraining AI's China's AI and high-end chip development. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for bringing this important bill up for a vote today. The windows the window to secure America's semiconductor advantage is narrowing.
▶ 3:51:25Left unchecked, China could render US and allied export controls irrelevant. Now is the time for Congress to work together in a bipartisan manner to assess and strengthen our export control regime. Our economic and national security is at stake. Thank you. I yield back. Gentleman yields back. I recognize myself.
▶ 3:51:45[clears throat] This committee has worked week in week out for the last year and a half to learn about every level of the AI stack from chips to models, chipmaking tools, lithography, more. One lesson we've learned is how important export controls have been to ensure that America maintains its lead in amassing the compute needed for AI. Without export controls implemented on a bipartisan basis since the first Trump administration, China might even be beating the United States in AI today.
▶ 3:52:16We all know these basic facts, but there are still some out there that argue that US export controls have failed, that there's no chip smuggling, that China would be our good faith partner if we just gave them crown jewel technology. Rep. Stanton's bill would help show the importance of US export controls by having the State Department publicly explain the impact that each export control has had on US national security. This bill was sharpened with majority inputs and we think it's a strong place.
▶ 3:52:44It's in a strong place to move forward and I urge my colleagues to support this measure. Is there any further Are there any amendments? Representative
▶ 3:52:58Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have an amendment at the desk.
▶ 3:53:01Clerk shall distribute the amendment and the clerk shall report the amendment.
▶ 3:53:06The amendment has been distributed by electronic device. Amendment number 74 to HR82887 offered by Mr. Stanton of Arizona, page three, line 10, strike semiconductors and all that follows.
▶ 3:53:18Without objection, further reading of the amendment is dispensed with. Representative Stanton, would you like to be recognized?
▶ 3:53:23Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This amendment makes small common sense updates to the underlying bill. Any assessment of the impact and effectiveness of our semiconductor export controls must also examine those export controls concerning semiconductor materials and related consumable inputs. those items that are uh for wafer fabrication, assembly and testing processes destined for the PRC.
▶ 3:53:48BIS has expanded enduse controls to cover development and production of semiconductor equipment and components. This includes strengthening of oversight of critical tools and materials used in semiconductor manufacturing. We need to understand whether our current export controls are effective in preventing the PRC's advancement in all aspects of the semiconductor ecosystem. The accuracy of this assessment depends on robust engagement with stakeholders from all aspects of the semiconductor supply chain.
▶ 3:54:18The tool makers, chip manufacturers, and more all need to provide their review of the effectiveness of our current export controls. State also needs to engage with allied semiconductor stakeholders like ASM whose equipment is essential for manufacturing advanced chips. The Dutch and the Japanese are at the table as well to ensure our export control regime is the most effective it can be. It is essential that we engage with allied stakeholders who are already engaged in the PRC.
▶ 3:54:46By making these two additional small changes, we will receive a more accurate assessment for Congress to act upon as we look to strengthen our export controls with the technology race with China. So, I encourage all of my colleagues to support this amendment and I yield back. Recognize myself simply to say I support the amendment. Do any other members seek There being no further discussion, the question now occurs on the amendment offered by Representative Stanton. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no.
▶ 3:55:16Opinion of the chair. The eyes have it and the amendment is agreed to. Any further amendments? Representative
▶ 3:55:23Thank you very much, Mr. uh chairman. I do have a second amendment at the desk.
▶ 3:55:27Clerk shall distribute the amendment and the clerk shall report that amendment.
▶ 3:55:31The amendment has been distributed by electronic device. Um amendment number 75 to HR8287 offered by Mr. Stanton of
▶ 3:55:38Without objection, further reading of the amendment is dispensed with. The representative is recognized.
▶ 3:55:42Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. This amendment makes additional updates to the underlying bill. We have to address our reliance on China for other critical parts of the semiconductor supply chain. With historic investment made thanks to the Chips and Science Act, the bipartisan act, we solved part of the equation, but left the rest unfinished. Most critical minerals used in the semiconductors are still processed in China. Chips manufactured here are still sent to China for packaging.
▶ 3:56:10That means even our domestic manufacturing has choke points that an adversary controls. China also uses control over the critical mineral supply chain to threaten us and our allies. China embargoed rare earth shipments to Japan over tensions in the Skaku Islands and in response to comments it didn't like from Japan's prime minister.
▶ 3:56:32In 2024, China imposed stringent export controls on gallium, germanmanium, antimony, and other materials critical for semiconductors in retaliation for our expanded semic semiconductor export restrictions on China. Although China's temporary roll back of such restrictions at the end of last year was positive, who knows what the future holds.
▶ 3:56:54As long as we remain reliant on China for these critical minerals, we need to understand what impact our export controls have on the availability of critical minerals and how we can strengthen our export control regime to prevent such a consequence in the future. This is why I've been fighting with the support of my Republican colleagues to diversify our critical minerals supply chain by bolstering the development of a regional semiconductor ecosystem in Latin America.
▶ 3:57:22Recent independent reporting from think tanks like CSIS and others explain that our export controls have accelerated Beijing's long-standing drive for semiconductor self-reliance. If we are to accurately understand why our export controls have failed to constrain the PRC, such an analysis must include the unintended effects of such policies have had on the development of the PRC's indigenous semiconductor industry. I understand the majority's opposition to this amendment.
▶ 3:57:51Adding this requirement to the assessment required by this bill does nothing to limit the need for strong export control regime. It only helps us to better understand how we can better tailor our policies to get it right and maintain our technological edge. I encourage all of my colleagues to support this amendment. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
▶ 3:58:09Gentleman yields back. I oppose this amendment. Do any other members seek Being no further discussion, the question now occurs on the amendment offered by Representative Stanton. All those in favor signify by saying I.
▶ 3:58:26All those opposed signify by saying no. No. Opinion of the chair. The nos have it and the amendment is not agreed to.
▶ 3:58:32May I ask for a recorded vote?
▶ 3:58:33You may. A roll call vote has been requested pursuant to the chair's previous announcement. That vote will be postponed. Are there any further Thank you. Pursuant to notice, I now call up HR 8036, the Inter Agency Coordination in Export Controls Act of 2026. The bill was circulated in advance and the clerk shall designate the bill
▶ 3:59:04HR 8036 to amend the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 to permit the Secretary of State, Defense or Energy to submit proposed rules to the Export Administration Review Board to require the Secretary of State.
▶ 3:59:17Further reading is dispensed with and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point. Without objection, the Bed amendment in the nature of a substitute circulated to members in advance shall be considered as read and will be treated as original text for purposes of the amendment.
▶ 3:59:32Does the author seek recognition?
▶ 3:59:35Yes, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 3:59:36Mr. Baird, you are recognized.
▶ 3:59:39Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Bureau of Industry and Security, BIS, within the Department of Commerce is currently the principal body responsible for proposing, considering, investigating, and implementing export control rules. These rules pertain to everything ranging from unmanned aerial systems, thermal imaging cameras, or more specifically to the focal point of this committee, semiconductor chips and AI technology. BIS determines export controls.
▶ 4:00:09Although more organizations than the Department of Commerce are directly affected by these rules, the Department of War, the Department of Energy both collaborate with partner nations to ensure US technology is preferred tech for developing nations and allies. But they are also work on non-prololiferation and hindering our adver adversaries ability to get their hands on US capabilities.
▶ 4:00:34The State Department engages frequently with allies and developing nations to incentivize the use and purchase of US technology. But again, there must be an emphasis on preventing the Communist Chinese party from implementing US capabilities into their dural dual dual use apparatus. The Department of War, the Department of State, and the Department of Energy are all stakeholders, and they ought to have a seat at the table.
▶ 4:01:03Each department needs to input on how a specific control may affect our downstream defense industrial base. Our energy cooperation with a partner nation or ability to mutually benefit diplomatic relations to persist. The Bureau of Industry and Security is a great organization with several hundred employees and at the intersection of commerce and national security.
▶ 4:01:27To tackle this rap rapidly growing issue, we must meet growth in AI, semiconductors, and dual use technology that ample staffing levels are met and that the inter agency has input.
▶ 4:01:43Allowing the Department of War, State Department, and the Department of Energy to propose export control rules instead of being at the behest of BIS will allow for each department to contribute both perspective and manpower to the export control rulemaking process. This bill doesn't push for any export control rule, rather reforming the rulemaking process to be more comprehensive and collaborative.
▶ 4:02:09As the rulemaking process sees reform, the State Department shall use its diplomatic lens and input from the director of defense trade controls to consider China's dual use capabilities and fusion of civil military technologies. I urge my Republican colleagues and my colleagues across the aisle to vote in favor of this legislation. I yield back.
▶ 4:02:31Gentleman yields back. You seek recognition. Representative Johnson.
▶ 4:02:35Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I oppose this measure which is designed to undermine commerce's role as the lead agency in our export controls. This committee deliberately placed BIS within commerce when it drafted and passed into law the export control reform act of 2018. I [snorts] have not heard any compelling reasons as to why commerce should be removed from the lead role at BIS except for the fact that the Trump administration has deliberately paused export controls on China.
▶ 4:03:02The departments of state, energy and defense already have the ability to suggest policy changes at BIS. They are already involved in license application decision on entity listing decisions. They are explicitly included in the statutory authorities under ERC ECR following regulations in the law and export controls worked during the Biden administration and it would work under this administration if it cared to do so. I yield back.
▶ 4:03:29Any other members seek recognition? recognize myself. [snorts] This bill addresses a critical but lesserk known export control issue. The export control agencies, state, war, and energy are bureaucratically restricted from utilizing their unique expertise in the export control policymaking process. These agencies all have specialized skills for ensuring that foreign adversaries like the CCP, Russia, and Iran cannot exploit US and allied technology to advance support for their militaries.
▶ 4:03:59Under current law, inter agency coordination on these agencies proposals is restricted by delays until commerce formally submits their proposals for discussion. This undermines national security and adds bureaucracy that stifles timely policym. This bill's solution is simple. Drop the unnecessary barriers to coordinate and allow any of the export control agencies to directly submit proposals for inter agency consideration.
▶ 4:04:24Other countries will know that when the State Department is asking them to adopt multilateral export controls, they are talking directly to an agency that can ensure timely delivery of license exemption incentives for adoption. This is good for national security and good for industry. I want to thank Mr. Bar for working hard on this common sense bill that would close loopholes in the export control process and advance the Trump administration's AI action plan. And I urge my colleagues to support.
▶ 4:04:53Do any other members seek There being no further discussion, I move that the committee report HR 8036 as amended to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no. If any of the chair, the eyes have it and the motion is agreed to.
▶ 4:05:21A roll call vote has been requested pursuant to the chair's previous announcement. That vote will be Thank you. [snorts] Pursuant to notice, I now call up HR171. I now call up HR 8170, the Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware Act. The bill was circulated in advance and the clerk shall designate that bill.
▶ 4:05:49HR 8170 to provide for export restrictions on certain semiconductor manufacturing equipment and components therefore and for other purposes.
▶ 4:05:57Without objection, the first reading is dispensed with and the bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point. Without objection, the Bombgardner amendment in the nature of a substitute circulated to members in advance shall be considered as read and will be treated as original text for the purpose of the amendment. Would the author like to speak? You're recognized, Mr. Bombgartner. Well, big thanks, Mr. Chairman. The United States and our allies are leading the way when it comes to advanced chip production.
▶ 4:06:24Sophisticated tools, including the extreme ultraviolet or EUV and deep ultraviolet immersion, DUV lithography systems produce cutting edge chips at a scale not possible for any of our potential challengers, including China. This equipment was not created by the US alone, but engineered after decades of allied collaboration. Yet, China has made it abundantly clear that intends to dominate the technologies underpin both our economy and our national defense.
▶ 4:06:51The PRC is investing heavily to replicate advanced semiconductor manufacturing, often by exploiting gaps in export controls, shifting production across networks or affiliated firms and pursuing alternative pathways where direct access is denied. The objective is not merely for them to catch up, but to build parallel systems that are less dependent on the technology and standards developed by free nations. Last year, I had the opportunity to become the first House Republican to visit China in six years.
▶ 4:07:19One of my takeaways that while we need to find an accommodation coexistence with China, that we also need to avoid a war with China. And of course, the best way to do that, all of us remember the saying, if you want uh well peace, prepare for war. Well, right now we are not prepared. And to do this, the United States and our democratic allies must protect our AI dominance that we already have. Uh we are getting beat by China in other areas. We must absolutely protect our AI dominance.
▶ 4:07:46The US cannot afford to leave back doors opens that allow the Chinese Communist Party to acquire the tools it needs to catch up and leap ahead in semiconductor manufacturing. Right now, US export controls restrict American chipmaking tool companies from selling to China. But our allied supplier companies have not matched our controls. For example, in 202 or ASML of the Netherlands derived 36% of its total revenue from China, up 14% from just two years earlier.
▶ 4:08:12Meanwhile, US companies sit on the sidelines while their foreign competitors gain market share and China still gets their important equipment. I introduce the Match Act to ensure that America and our allies move in lock step to close these gaps, defend our technological edge, and safeguard supply chain that powers everything from our weapon systems to our critical infrastructure. The match act gives se allied supplier countries time to adopt controls matching US restrictions.
▶ 4:08:37And if they refuse, it requires BIS to exert US jurisdiction over allied chipmaking tools built with American technology, ending the crisis of allied companies backfilling export controls on China. It does not attempt to control AI innovation or pick winners among companies. Instead, it focuses on the conditions that makes innovation possible. Aligning controls on the specialized equipment, including checkpoint point techno technologies that required to produce advanced semiconductors, and do so in concert with our allies.
▶ 4:09:06If enacted into law, my bill will contain the growth of China's military aligned ship makers, protect America's lead in the AI arms race, something is extremely strongly important. Again, we do not seek conflict with China, but we need to prepare so that conflict does not happen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back. So, further discussion.
▶ 4:09:26Ranking I support this measure which is designed to constrain advanced node chip makers in China by depriving them of US and allied semiconductor manufacturing equipment and other components. At the same time, I know that this bill has generated vigorous debate among national security experts, our diplomatic allies, and the US semiconductor industry.
▶ 4:09:55or there are clear short-term benefits to this bill as it moves forward. I think it's important that the sponsors of this bill consider the long-term impacts of USME companies on America's alliances and partnerships and on US technology leadership across the semiconductor supply chain.
▶ 4:10:14Over recent weeks, I've heard from some US companies that are supportive of the bill, as well as US semiconductor industry members who have voiced concerns, as illustrated by industry associations such as ITI and The sponsors of the bill have also not taken eventual and predictable uh PRC retaliation into account as we saw last fall when China imposed extensive rare
▶ 4:10:44earth controls. Mandating specific controls within limited time periods on allies and competitors alike will constrain the administration's ability to get this right and work cooperatively across the board to protect our national security. And ultimately these sorts of complicated policy decisions should not be legislated by us.
▶ 4:11:08It should be made by BIS which can draw deeply from the expertise of other federal agencies, technology specialists and hard intelligence. I would hope that we can get BIS up to snuff so they can do just that. This should not be something that we just legislate. It should be something that goes through the experts. And with that, I yield back my tar.
▶ 4:11:37Ranking member yields back. Any other members seek recognition?
▶ 4:11:40Mr. Chairman,
▶ 4:11:41chairman emeritus.
▶ 4:11:42Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank Mr. Bomb Gartner for his leadership on this critical national security legislation. The United States is locked in a highstakes competition with the Chinese Communist Party over the future of artificial intelligence and military technology. We know they steal our technology, but we don't have to sell it to them. Protecting our technological edge is not a partisan issue. It has spanned multiple administrations because the threat is existential.
▶ 4:12:12During his first term, President Trump secured a signed agreement from the Dutch and Japanese governments to keep ASMLs and Tokyo Electronics most advanced lithography machines out of the CCP hands. I know this firsthand because I was a part of that agreement. I met with the ambassadors. We discussed it. The agreement was ironclad.
▶ 4:12:38The Biden administration attempted to build on that foundation by restricting exports of AI chips and other semiconductor equipment. But rather than securing a strict agreement from our allies like the Trump administration did, the Biden administration naively acted on trust.
▶ 4:13:00American industry was asked to sacrifice for national security and they complied believing that our allies would follow suit. However, they did not and that is the problem and that is why we have this bill before us here today. Today, while American companies face strict export controls and real financial sacrifices, some of our closest allies are backfilling that market in China.
▶ 4:13:31Foreign companies are rushing in to make billions of dollars outfitting Chinese tech giants with the exact same tools American companies are banned from selling. Often building those tools using American original software and components. This is not just a trade issue. It's a security failure. It's a diplomacy failure.
▶ 4:13:57We are shooting our own industry in the foot while China leaps ahead using chokepoint technology that they cannot build themselves. That is why the match act is so important. As Representative Bombgartner stated, we cannot have we cannot have open back doors.
▶ 4:14:19This bill addresses the most dangerous gaps in our current system and it gives the administration a clear mandate, a 150day deadline to re-engage our allies in diplomatic negotiations to construct a signed agreement, not one based on trust, but a ironclad signed agreement that they will match the controls we already have in place on our equipment. But our patience is not infinite.
▶ 4:14:46If allied countries refuse, this bill says that we will put export controls on US intellectual property inside these tools, ensuring that they can never be sold to China, not from us and not from our allies. If we stop the tools and the technicians, then we can stop the CCP's progress.
▶ 4:15:12We need a united front against the CCP and a level playing field for American companies. We cannot allow our allies to profit from the risks we take to protect the free world while they in turn go around the back door and profit off this loophole the Biden administration created. So, let's fix this problem. That's what this bill does. I urge my colleagues to support it and I yield back the balance of my time. Gentleman yields back.
▶ 4:15:41Any other members seek recognition? Going to recognize myself. The importance of advanced chips in today's military operations in no way, shape, or form could be overstated. The efficiency that chips and AI add to our military decision-making, our how they aid in taking decisions that could take months or years down to weeks or days.
▶ 4:16:10It's not something that we can afford to lose in. This is recognized in the war between Ukraine and Russia. It's recognized in this conflict between the United States and Iran. And it's recognized on a host of other battlefields. I say that to give context.
▶ 4:16:30Each year, China and their semiconductor industry hold a major expo to showcase its ambitions to overtake the US and its allies in critical technologies like chips and AI which are for the military in many circumstances. It's not just military video games. It's not just video games of war fighting.
▶ 4:16:54It's real casualties, real fighting, real decisionmaking, real weapons systems, real war. Every year, one of the biggest exhibits at the expo is from Dutch firm ASML. Why are they there at that expo? They are there to sell their super advanced chipm tools that they are the best at. Nobody does it better than them.
▶ 4:17:18absolutely incredible technology, but they are there to sell those advanced chipmools known as DUV immersion lithography machines to China. That's why they're there. This is the single most important tech that China needs to build AI chips in order to help their military and a host of other things that work against the United States of America.
▶ 4:17:46whether they're trying to use distillation to go out there and hack and learn and and do everything they can against American companies like Anthropic or anything Without these tools, China cannot make their own chips. They're left in the dust. They can't do it without. The math is that simple, [snorts] and they likely won't be able to for many years to come. Mr.
▶ 4:18:13Bombgardner's build would limit China's access to the most critical machines and the parts needed to make advanced chips and then work with our allies to agree to work on agreed shared restrictions for selling those tools to China. What will what will not be sold? Who will work on them? Who will who will provide technical support? This bill would address one of the gravest issues in front of our committee today. And I want to thank Mr.
▶ 4:18:41Bar Gardner for leading this bill and I urge my colleagues to support it. Any further Being no further discussion, we'll move to consideration of amendments. I'm sorry, Mr. Isena, you seeking
▶ 4:18:54Yep. Sorry about that.
▶ 4:18:55You are recognized.
▶ 4:18:56Sorry about that, Mr. Chairman. I I want to thank you and I want to thank the uh gentleman from Washington, Mr. Bombgardner, for his uh work on this very important uh legislation moving forward. And I' I've been I've been telling some of my colleagues and some of my um staff who have been wondering where I've been so much lately. I've actually spent more time in a skiff in the last eight months looking at these issues than I have in my entire eight terms of being in Congress.
▶ 4:19:25And uh it is that important, that critical a time. And as chairman of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over export controls, uh last November, I hosted a hearing uh titled export control loopholes, chipmaking tools and their And the idea was to shed light on the very issue that the match act addresses. The takeaway was clear.
▶ 4:19:50Our allies have weaker export controls than the United States does, and foreign companies continue to pad their wallets at the expense of our shared national security goals. In a not so shocking statement, US firms face real restrictions against selling to China's memory chipmaking champion CXMT. Nevertheless, Japanese and Dutch companies have a much easier time backfilling this hole in the market and make billions, frankly, in the process.
▶ 4:20:21If the United States and our allies are going to get serious about the AI arms race, this practice has to end. The Match Act does just that, ensuring that US allies raise their controls to match ours, thereby preventing the CCP from exploiting our critical technology for its own gain.
▶ 4:20:42Moreover, this bill bans China's access to the single most important tool for growing its indigenous production of advanced chips, the DUV immersion machine. Without this tool, America and its allies can widen their lead over China in both semiconductors and AI. I know some in the industry have said that toothpaste is out of the out of the uh the tube already. Uh that might have been the first mistake.
▶ 4:21:11Let's not make a second mistake which would be then to allow these allies to go in and uh and send additional equipment to extend that. So moreover u I know there's been a lot of conversation about the servicing requirements of these DUV machines currently in China.
▶ 4:21:32The ANS for this bill significantly scaled back required allies companies to obtain a license from BIS to continue servicing those tools. This is the same pro same protocol that American companies must follow when servicing their tools. So it's not impossible but there has to be a review in that uh in that process.
▶ 4:21:55uh the days of weak diplomacy and giving our allies free pass to undercut our shared what they would call our shared uh security are over. So I've seen how China is exploiting access to America's and and our allies chipmaking equipment to modernize its military and pursu pursue global AI dominance.
▶ 4:22:16The bipartisan match act advances the security, the economic prosperity, and the technological leadership of the United States and our allies by protecting critical chipmaking equipment from the Chinese Communist Party. So, I do urge my colleagues to support this bill. I think this is common sense. I say, Mr. Chairman, you've heard me say this in in some other arenas, a sanction is only as good as your willingness to enforce it.
▶ 4:22:45And sadly, we've had far too long this notion that if we just sort of pronounce these sanctions or pronounce these restrictions that uh that's good enough. And Mr. Chairman, we have discovered it's not good enough and it's not it's time to put an end to it. So, I urge my colleagues to support this bill and with that I yield back.
▶ 4:23:06Any further discussion? Being no further discussion, does any member wish to offer an amendment? Representative Perry. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. I have an amendment at the desk. Clerk shall distribute and report the amendment.
▶ 4:23:23Thank you.
▶ 4:23:28Amendment to the amendment in the nature of a substitute to HR 8170 offered by Mr. Perry of Pennsylvania.
▶ 4:23:34Without objection, further reading of the amendment is dispensed with. Representative is recognized.
▶ 4:23:39Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to begin by thanking you for the markup and the maker of the bill for his work and effort on this subject long overdue. I also want to address my good friend, the ranking member, regarding his comments with BIS.
▶ 4:23:56And while the legislature moves slowly and often times too slowly for fastm moving issues like this one, I'll remind everybody why we are at this moment and how we got here.
▶ 4:24:11The last administration essentially let the trust of this critical technology and capability with the with our allies who aren't always with us on every occasion and certainly have different interests than we do but primarily unfortunately with the trust of the communist party of China which is why I offer this amendment to the match act which is well-intended legislation But it
▶ 4:24:41can be made stronger with some additional provisions. It is true that the match act would increase visibility and par with foreign companies who manufacture in China. These new regulations at BIS must come with enforcing mechanism, not just s signatures, but actual consequences. This amendment would do three things. One, it expands the number of facilities this bill would apply to.
▶ 4:25:07As of now, the companies that are listed include those that manufact manufacture CXMT and YMTC memory makers, SIM logic chips. Annie and all companies in the chip industry supply chain in the CCP must be included to ensure comprehensive impact.
▶ 4:25:29Two, if companies who currently operate in China fail to comply with the license requirements newly mandated through the Match Act, they will be required to remove their tools and machinery from Chinese soil.
▶ 4:25:45And number three, the same companies who refuse to comply with the new requirements enumerated in this bill will have to transit will have transit of current tools and machinery to China China is a nation is not a nation of They are thieves, imitators, and copycats.
▶ 4:26:09And they do so at the cost of American greatness and innovation at a minimum, not to mention national security and international security. Parity and visibility sound great and diplomatic, but without an enforcing mechanism, they are and will be fruitless. It is time we put our money where our mouth is and hold our allies to the same standards that we require our companies comply with. They want to make profits, too.
▶ 4:26:39But the safeguarding of our nation must come before profits, whether they originate in the United States of America or with our allies abroad. And so I'm happy to have the conversation. I urge adoption and I yield. Mr. Chairman, gentleman yields. Any other members seek recognition? Recognize myself, thieves, imitators, and copycats. Couldn't agree more.
▶ 4:27:09Uh, fundamentally, your amendment raises very important questions which we've been working on, will continue to work on. Uh, as Representative Heisenga pointed out, we've been spending endless amounts of time in the skiff and behind closed doors with roundts with everybody from industry. We will continue to do so.
▶ 4:27:28Um, I will simply say, uh, you've raised important issues and I agree with many of them and, uh, whether this amendment does or does not pass, you have my commitment that I will work on them one way or another, uh, because I think there are serious concerns, uh, and we'll be to work on them one way or another starting tomorrow. So, that much I can tell you, but I do not recommend a yes on this amendment. Any other members seek recognition? Representative
▶ 4:27:56Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman, I' I'd love to uh to to hear a little more from the uh sponsor of the amendment. What what you feel are the inade adequacies of the bill in its current form that uh because you you're unconvinced of BIS's authority or willingness to uh to to sanction or Treasury's unwillingness to sanction. What just get help me understand? I don't want to.
▶ 4:28:24Look, we left it to an administration and look, elections have consequences. I get it. But I think the legislature needs to um to to make sure that any administration, the American people understand that we stand with the American people, with the national sovereignty of our country, with the national security of our country. And in cases where there might be a question of political influence, that we take that question off the table.
▶ 4:28:51We intend to not have the Chinese Communist Party come anywhere close to parody with the United States of America when it comes to chip manufacturing, AI, or anything related in this in this race that we find ourselves in with our adversary.
▶ 4:29:05Reclaiming my time, I I I I have I don't disagree and much like the chairman, I don't disagree with uh anything that you are saying or positing of what we need to do. I guess what I'm trying to trying to understand is the motivation behind the amendment. Um it certainly I mean this would be extremely uh tough. Uh we uh I think a number of us have heard uh late by the way very late in the process.
▶ 4:29:34We've heard from some of those allies uh who uh who have concerns um and I think the chairman and Mr. Bombgardner uh and certainly any of the ancillary conversations that I've been a part of have been in good faith trying to find a way that we could move forward on a bipartisan basis. I had a bill earlier that would have included state department in a in a process.
▶ 4:29:56I believe it was the minorities request that it solely be department of commerce uh that uh that do that uh that review. Um, so I'm I'm just just help as I'm trying to figure out whether I can or or uh support this uh amendment as it's written as it's getting inserted now or whether I much like the chairman say, I I agree with the concept and the uh certainly the motivations behind, but I'm not able to uh to to to vote yes on
▶ 4:30:27the amendment based on on the product that we're trying to move forward. Yeah, and I understand and and of course I too seek a bipartisan product because we want this, as it's been said around here, to be a lawmaking exercise. And we too have heard from um from concerned parties regarding this legislation that Mr. Bumgardner has worked on so well and it's been revised because we want a bipartisan solution.
▶ 4:30:54But I also have to acknowledge that the um that the interests that are reaching out to us essentially have sold us out for a profit. And I want them to be sure to be absolutely sure that we mean business that if they don't like the current legislation that Mr. Bumgardner has offered that's been amended and the chairman recommends that it can get actually it it can actually get tougher and it will get tougher. We mean
▶ 4:31:21So it's reclaiming my time. So it's not necessarily a doubt about Treasury's commitment or BIS.
▶ 4:31:28Well, we want to direct that.
▶ 4:31:29We're wanting to Okay. You're wanting to to make sure that uh that you enumerate what the teeth might be and what the penalties might be. Correct. So that's correct. Okay. Uh I think I have a good understanding of that. Uh Mr. Chairman, with that I yield back.
▶ 4:31:43Very good. Gentleman yields back. Any further discussion? Representative Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to uh thank uh Congressman Perry uh for his strong stance in interest uh on the issue.
▶ 4:32:02you know the underlying bill the premise here is that we need to take steps to make sure the US maintains a significant advantage uh in this space and because of essentially the the reason it's called the match act is to match uh our foreign uh partners rules uh with Americas and if we don't get a bill across the finish line then uh we'll have missed an opportunity here and so while I I uh
▶ 4:32:32certainly respect the uh the effort and you have my commitment uh to to work together uh on this issue. I'm I'm I'm going to respectfully ask for a a no vote on the amendment as well too just as we try to get a bipartisan product across the finish line given the the stakes of of where this uh thing is at. And with that uh Mr. Chair, I yield back.
▶ 4:32:53Ranking member Meeks.
▶ 4:32:55Yeah, I too have to oppose this measure. I'm voting yes on the bomb Ghana bill because I do understand the significance and the importance for our American companies and businesses to have a level playing field. And as I indicated, I think that there's some things that I have to look at for the long term.
▶ 4:33:17Uh but I think it's important that the message that we want to make sure that our American business and our national security, which is ultimately uh the most important thing to me, uh is prepared. And uh and so I think we do have a bipartisan bill the way it is. Um I think that if this measure was to pass, then I might have to rethink how I vote on this bill.
▶ 4:33:46um because of some of the concerns that I have. But I thank Mr. Bombgartner because we've been able to work and talk uh in this regards uh uh to uh to to make this bipartisan so that we can move and melt away you don't get everything that you want one way or the other. So uh I I I have to oppose this measure uh and hope that we can uh keep this uh in the manner uh of which Mr.
▶ 4:34:10Bomb Gardner has drafted it uh so that we could have uh a strong uh bipartisan vote uh on this uh on this particular measure and I I yield back the balance of my time.
▶ 4:34:22Gentleman yields back. Any further discussion? Seeing no further discussion rec uh Mr. Perry represent
▶ 4:34:28Mr. Chairman in light of the conversation with the the conversation kind of centered around where we want to go with this one way or the other. Let me say that one way or the other. In the interest of bipartisanship and getting something done as opposed to not having anything, but also with the spectre of executive action if we fail here. When I say we, not just the House of Representatives, not just this committee, but the ability to get this to the president for a someone like me will be re recommending executive action.
▶ 4:34:59But with that, I withdraw the amendment respectfully.
▶ 4:35:02Gentlemen withdraws. And like I said, I'll look forward to working on it with you tomorrow. They're important issues that you raise. Uh that being said, gentleman withdraws. Are there any further amendments? Representative Bombgartner.
▶ 4:35:20Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have amendment number one at the desk.
▶ 4:35:23Clerk shall distribute the amendment and the clerk shall report the amendment.
▶ 4:35:29Amendment to the amendment in the nature of a substitute number one to HR 8170 offered by Mr. Bumgardner of Washington. Without objection, further reading of the amendment is dispensed with. The representative is recognized.
▶ 4:35:39Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh this amendment makes some small technical changes to the bill and incorporates bipartisan feedback to ensure that our allies understand our motivations and reports to Congress remain confidential for national security purposes. I particularly want to thank Congressman Castro and all those who provided thoughtful feedback for this bill, including uh the ranking member. And with that, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor uh of this amendment, and I yield back. Any further discussion? There being no further discussion, the question now occurs on the amendment offered by Representative Bombgartner.
▶ 4:36:10All those in favor and I recommend a yes. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.
▶ 4:36:14All those opposed signify by saying no. Opinion of the chair, the eyes have it and the amendment is agreed to. Any further amendments? Seeing none. I move that the committee report HR8170 as amended to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no. Opinion of the chair. The eyes have it.
▶ 4:36:37Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to request a roll call vote.
▶ 4:36:38A roll call vote has been requested. Pursuant to the chair's previous announcement, that vote will be This the last one.
▶ 4:36:49Last one.
▶ 4:36:52Huh? I'm [laughter] call recess. All right. Pursuant to notice, I now call up HR8289, the BIS Licensing Efficiency Act of 2026. The bill was circulated in advance, and the clerk shall designate the bill.
▶ 4:37:14HR 8289 to amend the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 to ensure expeditious processing of license applications and for other purposes. Without objection, further reading is dispensed with and the bill bill is considered read and open to amendment at any point. Would the author like to speak?
▶ 4:37:31Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under the Trump administration, export license reviews are facing extensive and excusable inexcusable delays. In an industry survey conducted in 2026 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 58% of respondents reported license review times averaging over 180 31% reported weights of over 300 days and 78% reported significant increases in license processing
▶ 4:38:02times over the preceding 12 months. These days are costing United States businesses billions of dollars in revenue, costing the American people jobs and harming America's technology leadership and critical sectors. The delays are inconsistent with the Export Control Reform Act of 2018, which suggests that most applications should be reviewed within 30 days.
▶ 4:38:28Moreover, BIS's own regulations stipulate that license applications should be adjudicated no longer than 90 calendar days from the date of application submission. My bill, the BIS Licensing Efficiency Act of 2026, amends the EC by stipulating that licensing decision should be made within 90 days.
▶ 4:38:57If a licensing decision is still not made after 120 days, the secretary must contact the applicant and offer a reason why. It also amends EC to create a quarterly reporting requirement that will force BIS to inform Congress about license timelines and processes so that we can ensure that this does not happen again.
▶ 4:39:28I want to again thank Representative Isa uh who I've worked with on several bills on this markup and others in the past for co-leading this bill with me and working together to get to a bipartisan agreement uh so that we can pass that and he's been working so therefore with the majority and with us uh to so that we can reach an agreement uh on this bill and I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan measure and I yield
▶ 4:39:58back the balance of my time.
▶ 4:40:00Ranking member yields back. Any other members seek recognition? Recognize myself. The BIS License Efficiency Act will provide useful visibility into the licensing process at BIS. As chairman, I've benefited greatly by my ability to request licensing information from BIS as a part of ECRA. And [snorts] this bill is in the same spirit. It requires a quarterly report on the status of applications within the BIS licensing process, giving Congress more insight. I want to thank Mr. Meeks for his work on this.
▶ 4:40:28This bill has been refined through input from the majority and it benefits from having Representative Isa as its co-lead. I urge all my colleagues to vote in favor of this bill. Is there any further discussion? Any member wish to offer an amendment? There being no further amendments, I move that the committee report HR8289 to the House with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no. opinion of the chair. The eyes have it and the motion is agreed to.
▶ 4:40:57Ask for a roll call.
▶ 4:40:58A roll call vote has been requested pursuant to the chair's previous announcement. That final vote will be postponed and the committee will now
▶ 4:41:10What time did we come for?
▶ 4:41:12Truthfully, I
▶ 5:39:35Heat. Heat.
▶ 5:40:16Heat. Heat.
▶ 5:43:01Heat. Heat.
▶ 5:45:27Heat. Heat.
▶ 5:46:26Heat. Heat.
▶ 5:48:44You're unnecessarily quiet.
▶ 5:48:49That's right.
▶ 5:49:29You want to wait for him?
▶ 5:52:04Thank you everybody for your attendance. Committee will come to order. Uh I am going to recognize ranking member Meeks for a moment. Thank you colleagues. Um, as many of you may know, earlier this morning, we lost one of our colleagues, uh, David Scott, who had who passed.
▶ 5:52:30Uh, and David, who have served in his house, uh, for over 25 years. Uh, he is, uh, was the ultimate businessman graduating from the Walton Business School in Pennsylvania. He was the first African-American to ever chair the agricultural committee. Uh he also served uh right beside uh me on the uh house financial services committee. He was a dear friend. We would often talk about baseball.
▶ 5:52:59you know, he knew everybody, especially uh back uh in with the Brooklyn Daughters because of the fact that he was also the brother-in-law of the all-time great Henry Hank Aaron. Uh and we would have stories about him and talk about him all the time.
▶ 5:53:18So I just would ask um and I thank the chairman for giving me this time a brief moment of silence uh to memorize the life and the times of our colleague um David Thank you.
▶ 5:53:41Committee co postpone further proceedings on reporting HR 8202 to amend the export control act of 2018 provide for a 10-year statute of limitations for export control violations favorably to the house on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. The question now occurs on reporting the measure to the house with a favorable recommendations. Members will vote using the electronic voting voting system. The clerk shall open the vote.
▶ 5:54:31Mr. Chairman.
▶ 5:54:33Mr. Chairman.
▶ 5:54:35Yes. Uh some of us have better eyesight than others. Uh how can we determine
▶ 5:54:43if in fact our vote has been recorded?
▶ 5:54:45It has no but it was up there for a moment.
▶ 5:55:27Mr. Chairman,
▶ 5:55:29Mr. Burchett,
▶ 5:55:31I can This reminds me a little bit when I was in the state legislature in Tennessee and we switched to computers.
▶ 5:55:37Can you share with us the story?
▶ 5:55:38I will. [laughter]
▶ 5:55:40Fantastic. as as we say in East Tennessee, thank you for axing.
▶ 5:55:46you're recognized.
▶ 5:55:47Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I remembered the chairman who was a dear friend of mine after we switched over to computers. He's a Democrat. He was a very rural
▶ 5:55:56rural uh West Tennessee Democrat. He was very good man, unlike some of my friends across the aisle and like some of them
▶ 5:56:04Hey, mixed. It's a mixed match. I'm pointing at you, Jackson. Um, but he said, "Yeah, I remember before we had these computers, we could all vote by hand and we knew what the vote was going to be and now we switched over the computers and he said, "And we'll know and we'll come back next week and we'll find out what our vote was." And I feel like we were in that similar and that was the truth. The computers locked down.
▶ 5:56:26We um somebody's brother-in-law sold us a really good system and then uh and then somebody else's brother-in-law came in and fixed it and then that's how that's where we were in the great state of Tennessee.
▶ 5:56:37You have kin in computer sales?
▶ 5:56:39No, my kin No, my kin does not. Look, there's two groups of Burchchetts in Tennessee. There's one group of Burchetts that went to school that was mine and there's ones that went to work. The ones that went to work made all the dad gum money. So,
▶ 5:56:54thank you, Mr. chairman for this reflection. Mr.
▶ 5:56:56Chairman, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 5:56:57Yes, Mr. Keing.
▶ 5:56:58I'm ask unanimous consent that represent Burchett's uh comments be part of the permanent record.
▶ 5:57:05Does anybody second that motion?
▶ 5:57:07Mr. Chairman, I I cannot hear out of my left ear. My wife says it's selective. The doctor says otherwise. What was that? [laughter]
▶ 5:57:15What was that?
▶ 5:57:16Wants that to be a part of the record. Nobody has seconded that yet. So,
▶ 5:57:19okay. Mr. Mills has second.
▶ 5:57:21I'll second it. I'm all right with it.
▶ 5:57:22Mr. Chairman, I'd just like to know what school you went to.
▶ 5:57:26University of Tennessee is the best six years of my life undergraduate.
▶ 5:57:32Texas is grateful for volunteers.
▶ 5:57:34Mhm. Yeah. Texas. Did you say Texas?
▶ 5:57:37I said Texas is grateful for volunteers.
▶ 5:57:40Yeah. And Texas is
▶ 5:57:41killed the last one that went there. If it wasn't for us, there wouldn't be a Texas. Davy Crockett, you know what he
▶ 5:57:47I knew I could stir this up.
▶ 5:57:48Thank you. Davy Crockett said, "You can all go to hell. does for me. I'm going to Texas. And he went to Texas.
▶ 5:57:54How's that working out?
▶ 5:57:55Well, and he ends up getting killed at the Alamo, but he got a Disney special out of the deal. So, it kind of evened
▶ 5:58:03He wore a raccoon hat unlike what the secretary services.
▶ 5:58:11Are we ready to vote? [laughter] Mr. Burchett, would you prefer to go back to recorded uh a roll call vote? I don't care. I just want to get out of here. I'm tired of this. Fair enough.
▶ 5:58:26They they promised me there's going to be refreshments and we got in the majority and there's no pizza. I'm I'm looking at the ranking member down there and he's always he's telling me how to dress and he always offers me refreshments. So, I'm my my vote is wavering, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 5:58:40Fair enough. I'll invite you for breakfast next time. All right, let's vote. Clerk, can you open the vote? recommend a yes.
▶ 5:59:09Mr. Chairman, I'm I'm concerned. Uh my I'm supposed to be in red according to my party designation. Is there something wrong here? I'm in blue.
▶ 5:59:17You Maybe uh age and and eyesight. Mr. Isa, I'm not sure.
▶ 5:59:22Where's a Where's a West Tennessee Democrat when you need him, Mr. Chairman? That's a
▶ 5:59:30Now we lost.
▶ 5:59:34They're colorcoordinating it.
▶ 5:59:45have all members voted? Does any member wish to change their vote?
▶ 5:59:50Clerk will close the vote and report the
▶ 5:59:53On this vote, the Azer 44, the no zero.
▶ 6:00:01On this vote, the eyes have it. The motion is agreed to. Committee postpone further proceedings on reporting HR 7962, the export dispute resolution act favorably to the House on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. Question now occurs on reporting the measure to the House with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote using the electronic voting system. The clerk will open the
▶ 6:00:25Have all members voted? Does any member wish to change their vote?
▶ 6:00:30Clerk will close the vote and report the
▶ 6:00:32On this vote, the Azer 44, the nose
▶ 6:00:34The eyes have it and the motion is agreed to. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. Committee postponed further proceedings on reporting HR 8169 the export control enforcement enhancement act as amended favorably to the house on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. Question now occurs on reporting the measure to the house with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote using the electronic voting system. The clerk will open the Have all members voted?
▶ 6:01:03Does any member wish to change their Clerk will close the vote and report the On this vote, the Azer 44, the no zero.
▶ 6:01:14The eyes have it and the motion is agreed to. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table and staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. The committee postpone further proceedings on reporting HR4505, the Export Controls Enforcement Act, as amended favorably to the House, on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. The question now occurs on reporting the measure to the House with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system. The clerk will open the Have all members voted?
▶ 6:01:43Does any member wish to change their Clerk will close the vote and report the
▶ 6:01:51On this vote, the eyes are 41, the nose
▶ 6:01:53The eyes have it. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. Committee postpone further proceedings on reporting HR 7003, the BIS strength act, favorably to the House, on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. The question now occurs on reporting the measure to the House with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system. The clerk will open the vote. Have all members voted? Does any member wish to change their vote?
▶ 6:02:23Clerk will close the vote and report the tally.
▶ 6:02:26On this vote, the eyes are 42, the nose
▶ 6:02:28The eyes have it and the motion is agreed to. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. Committee postponed further proceedings on reporting HR5853 to amend the export control reform act of 2018 to increase the civil penalties that may be imposed under such act favorably to the house on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. The question now occurs on the reporting the measure to the house with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system. The clerk will open the vote.
▶ 6:03:00Have all members voted? Does any member wish to change their vote? Clerk will close the vote and report the
▶ 6:03:08On this vote, the eyes are 44, no zero.
▶ 6:03:11The eyes have it. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table and staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. The committee postponed further proceedings on reporting HR8288, the strengthening export controls compliance act favorably to the house on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. The question now occurs on reporting the measure to the house with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system. The clerk will open the vote. Have all members voted? Does any member wish to change their vote?
▶ 6:03:42Clerk will close the vote and report the
▶ 6:03:44On this vote, the eyes are 39 nos five.
▶ 6:03:49The eyes have it. The motion is agreed to. Motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Staff's authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. The committee postponed further proceedings on reporting HR 6331. The adversaries act as amended favorably to the House on which the eyes prevail by voice vote. The question now occurs on reporting the measure to the House with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system. The clerk will open the vote. Have all members voted.
▶ 6:04:20Does any member wish to change their vote? Clerk will close the vote and report the
▶ 6:04:28On this vote, the eyes are 44, nos zero.
▶ 6:04:31The eyes have it. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. The committee postponed further proceedings on reporting HR8285, the Protecting American Competition Act of 2026 favorably to the House on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. The question now occurs on reporting the measure to the House with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system. The clerk will open the vote.
▶ 6:05:00Have all members voted? Does any member wish to change their vote? Clerk will close the vote and report the tally
▶ 6:05:06on this vote. The eyes are 44 nos zero.
▶ 6:05:09The eyes have it and the motion is agreed to. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. The committee postponed further proceedings on reporting HR4920, the BIST modernization act as amended favorably to the House on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. The question now occurs on reporting the measure to the House with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system. The clerk will open the vote. Have all members voted.
▶ 6:05:39Does any member wish to change their vote? Clerk will close the vote. Report the
▶ 6:05:48On this vote, the eyes are 39, nos five.
▶ 6:05:50The eyes have it and the motion is agreed to. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. The committee postponed further proceedings on reporting HR6624, the Biological Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2025 as amended favorably to the House on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. The question now occurs on reporting the measure to the House with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system. The clerk will open the vote. Have all members voted?
▶ 6:06:20Does any member wish to change their vote? Clerk will close the vote. Report the
▶ 6:06:27On this vote, the eyes are 32, the nose
▶ 6:06:30The eyes have it. The motion is agreed
▶ 6:06:32Oh, excuse me. Hold on. It is closed.
▶ 6:07:10We can't change it, but we can write a
▶ 6:07:24he would like to I just ask unanimous consent to change my vote from yes to no. Without
▶ 6:07:40Mr. Chairman,
▶ 6:07:42I unanimous consent to change my vote from yes to no.
▶ 6:07:46Mr. Costa, without objection. Anybody else?
▶ 6:07:54Clerk will close the vote and report the Thank you.
▶ 6:08:00on this vote. The yays are 30, the nos are 14.
▶ 6:08:03The eyes have it. The motion is agreed to. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. Committee postpone further proceedings on reporting HR6996, the full AI stack export promotion act as amended favorably to the House on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. Question now occurs on reporting the measure to the House with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system. Clerk will open the vote.
▶ 6:08:32Have all members voted? Does any member wish to change their vote? Clerk will close the vote. Report the
▶ 6:08:41On this vote, the eyes are 37, the nose
▶ 6:08:46The eyes have it. Motion is agreed to. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. Committee postponed further proceedings on reporting HR5543, the Baltic Security Assessment Act of 2025, favorably to the House, on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. The question now occurs on reporting the measure to the House with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system. The clerk will open the vote.
▶ 6:09:17Have all members voted? Does any member wish to change their vote? Clerk will close the vote. Report the tally. On this vote, the eyes are 41, the nose
▶ 6:09:24The eyes have it. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table and staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. Committee postponed further proceedings on reporting HR6058, the Stride Act as amended favorably to the House on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. The question now occurs on reporting the measure to the House with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system and the clerk will open the vote. Have all members voted?
▶ 6:09:54Does any member wish to change their vote? Clerk will close the vote. Report the tally.
▶ 6:09:58On this vote, the eyes are 44, the nose
▶ 6:10:00The eyes have it. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. Committee postponed further proceedings on reporting HR 8320, the USA 6G global leadership act favorably to the House on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. The question now occurs on reporting the measure to the house with a favorable recommen recommendation. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system. The clerk will open the vote.
▶ 6:10:29If all members voted, does any member wish to change their vote? Clerk will clerk will close the vote and report the
▶ 6:10:47On this vote, the eyes are 41, the nose
▶ 6:10:51The eyes have it. The motion is agreed to. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. Committee postpone further proceedings on reporting HR 6322, the Stop Stealing Our Chips Act as amended favorably to the House on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. The question now occurs on reporting the measure to the House with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system. The clerk will open the vote. Folks, uh during the
▶ 6:11:17Have all members voted?
▶ 6:11:20Does any member wish to change their
▶ 6:11:23Clerk will close the vote and report the
▶ 6:11:26On this vote, the eyes are 43. The nose
▶ 6:11:29The eyes have it. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. Committee postponed further proceedings on reporting HR8283, the deterring American AI model theft act of 2026 as amended favorably to the House on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. The question now occurs on reporting the measure to the house with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system. The clerk will open the vote.
▶ 6:11:57Have all members voted?
▶ 6:11:58Does any member wish to change their
▶ 6:12:02Clerk will close the vote. Report the On this vote, the eyes are 43, the nose
▶ 6:12:08The eyes have it. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. The committee postponed further proceedings on reporting HR8284, the Bureau of Industry and Security License Administration Enhancement Act as amended favorably to the House on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. The question now occurs on reporting the measure to the House with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system and the clerk will open the vote.
▶ 6:12:38Have all members voted. Does any member wish to change their
▶ 6:12:46Clerk will close the vote. Report the
▶ 6:12:49On this vote, the eyes are 43, the nose
▶ 6:12:52The eyes have it. The motion is agreed to. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table and staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. Committee postponed further proceedings on the roll call vote on amendment number 75 offered by representative Stanton to HR8287 on which the nos had prevailed by voice vote. The question now occurs on agreeing to the amendment. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system. Clerk will open the vote. I recommend a no vote.
▶ 6:13:24Have all members voted? Does any member wish to change their vote? Clerk will close the vote and report the tally.
▶ 6:13:33On this vote, the eyes are 19, the nose
▶ 6:13:36The nos have it in the amendment is not agreed to. I move that the committee report HR 8287 as amended to the house with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying no. Opinion of the chair, the eyes have it. The motion is agreed to. Roll call vote.
▶ 6:13:58A roll call vote has been requested.
▶ 6:14:07clerk will open the vote. Clerk will close the vote and report the
▶ 6:14:28On this vote, the eyes are 43, the nose
▶ 6:14:31The eyes have it. The motion is agreed to without objection. The motion to reconsider is laid on the table and staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. Committee postponed further proceedings on reporting HR 8036 the inter agency coordination and export controls act of 2026 as amended favorably to the house on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. Question now occurs on reporting the measure to the house with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system and the clerk will open the vote.
▶ 6:15:05Have all members voted? Does any member wish to change their vote? Clerk will close the vote. Report the
▶ 6:15:17I said you had support.
▶ 6:15:20Clerk will close the vote and report the
▶ 6:15:22On this vote, the eyes are 25, the nose
▶ 6:15:25The eyes have it. The motion is agreed to. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table and staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. Committee postponed further proceedings on reporting HR 8170 the multilateral alignment of technology controls on hardware act as amended favorably to the house on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. The question now occurs on reporting the measure to the house with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system. The clerk will open the vote.
▶ 6:15:55Have all members voted? Does any member wish to change their Clerk will close the vote and report the
▶ 6:16:08On this vote, the eyes are 36, the nose
▶ 6:16:11The eyes have it. The motion is agreed to. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table and staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. The committee postponed further proceedings on reporting HR8289, the BIS Licensing Efficiency Act of 2026 favorably to the House, on which the eyes prevailed by voice vote. The question now occurs on reporting the measure to the House with a favorable recommendation. Members will vote utilizing the electronic voting system. The clerk will open the vote. Have all members voted?
▶ 6:16:41Does any member wish to change their vote?
▶ 6:16:47The clerk will close the vote and report the tally.
▶ 6:16:50On this vote, the eyes are 44, the nose
▶ 6:16:53The eyes have it. The motion is agreed to. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Staff is authorized to make any technical and conforming changes. This concludes consideration of the measures noticed by the committee for today. Thank you all members for participating being no further business to transact. Committee stands adjourned.
▶ 6:17:13I think it's time to go vote.