A top Republican lawmaker asked the Commerce Department for documents linked to the enforcement of export controls on sensitive technologies, amid concerns that the Biden administration isn’t doing enough to restrict China’s access to advanced semiconductors.
(Bloomberg) — A top Republican lawmaker asked the Commerce Department for documents linked to the enforcement of export controls on sensitive technologies, amid concerns that the Biden administration isn’t doing enough to restrict China’s access to advanced semiconductors.
Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in the letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo that her department hasn’t responded to previous requests to explain how it enforces the controls.
“The United States needs a whole-of-government approach to protect sensitive and military-useful technology from foreign adversaries, such as the People’s Republic of China,” McCaul wrote in the letter, which was sent last week but not previously made public. “The initial deadlines for the enclosed letters passed long ago — in some cases more than a year — without acceptable responses.”
President Joe Biden expanded export controls last year on the sale of semiconductors and chip-making equipment to China. President Donald Trump had earlier imposed restrictions on blacklisted companies such as China’s Huawei Technologies Co. and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, or SMIC.
McCaul’s demands began in November 2020, late in the Trump administration. His office points to data it received from the Commerce Department in 2021 that showed the agency issued more than $100 billion of export licenses to suppliers of Huawei and SMIC in 2020 and 2021.
A Commerce Department spokesperson, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said implementing robust controls is a bipartisan priority and the department wants to ensure McCaul’s committee has the information it needs.
McCaul, who became chairman when his party took control of the House earlier this month, now has expanded powers to compel the department to respond and intends to make the bureau’s enforcement of export controls a focus of his tenure.
Later Wednesday, McCaul’s office said he would meet with Raimondo on Thursday to discuss the issue.
“In the event of noncompliance, the committee will use the authorities available to it to enforce these requests as necessary, including through compulsory process,” McCaul wrote. He asked that the information be provided no later than Jan. 25. According to the letter, he is renewing earlier requests to the department’s Bureau of Industry and Security and will conduct a 90-day review of the agency’s processes.
The bureau is responsible for enforcing export controls on so-called “dual-use technologies” that can be used in both commercial and military applications.
Last Congress, a group of lawmakers introduced legislation that would move some export control enforcement functions from the Commerce Department to the Department of Defense, a prospect McCaul alluded to in in his letter.
“A principal objective for this review is to determine if the Department of Commerce should continue to lead implementation of the export control system,” he said.
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