Maintaining American Superiority By Improving Export Control Transparency Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1316. Over the past 6 years, export controls have become a crucial tool for our national security and foreign policy to respond to the challenges posed by Russia, China, Iran, and others.

Our use of export controls have become more and more frequent and more complicated, as we have started to apply novel controls in critical technology areas such as semiconductors and AI. While this change in U.S. export control policy has taken place, congressional consultation and oversight has not kept up.

The bill in front of us today by Representative Jackson is an important step toward remedying this problem by calling for the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, BIS, to conduct greater transparency around license application, information, and conduct checks for problematic companies in arms-embargoed nations.

This bill will also enable Congress to conduct better oversight to ensure that BIS licensing and enforcement processes are working properly and efficiently. This bill will ensure that the Foreign Affairs Committee is getting the information it needs on export control policy and implementation, while protecting business proprietary information and allowing BIS to effectively execute its core national security mandate.

However, as we add to the list of things we are asking BIS to do, it is also important that we equip BIS with the resources and staffing to meet those requirements. This administration claims that it will prioritize export controls, yet it has frozen 10 percent of BIS' budget. That is not keeping America safe.

BIS desperately needs to revamp its outdated and inefficient IT system, which has not been updated in over 15 years. The number of license applications BIS receives per year has more than doubled in that span to over 40,000 per year. I worry that without a better IT system, reasonable requests for information like this bill will further tax BIS' limited resources.

Representative Crow and Ranking Member Meeks are working on a bill to fund IT modernization for BIS. I hope that as we pass good bills like this one by Mr. Jackson and Ms. Jacobs, we will also properly equip BIS so that it can effectively carry out its work.

I encourage my colleagues to join in supporting this measure, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, transparency is critical for effective congressional oversight, and Mr. Jackson's bill will allow Congress greater insight into the license application decisions and enforcement actions taken by the Bureau of Industry and Security.

Notwithstanding the length of the title, as pointed out by the chairman, I hope my colleagues will join me and support this bill. I yield back the balance of my time.

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