[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 139 (Monday, September 9, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H5077-H5078]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REMOTE ACCESS SECURITY ACT

  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill 
(H.R. 8152) to amend the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 to provide 
for control of remote access of items, and for other purposes, as 
amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 8152

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Remote Access Security 
     Act''.

     SEC. 2. CONTROL OF REMOTE ACCESS OF ITEMS UNDER THE EXPORT 
                   CONTROL REFORM ACT OF 2018.

       The Export Control Reform Act of 2018 is amended--
       (1) in section 1742 (50 U.S.C. 4801), by adding at the end 
     the following:
       ``(15) Remote access.--The term `remote access' means 
     access to an item that is subject to the jurisdiction of the 
     United States (without regard to the physical location of the 
     item) and included on the Commerce Control List set forth in 
     Supplement No. 1 to part 774 of the Export Administration 
     Regulations, by a foreign person through a network 
     connection, including the internet or a cloud computing 
     service, from a location other than where the item is 
     physically located, to use the functions of the item if the 
     use of those functions may pose a serious risk to the 
     national security or foreign policy of the United States, 
     such as by--
       ``(A) training an artificial intelligence model that 
     could--
       ``(i) substantially lower the barrier of entry for experts 
     or non-experts to design, synthesize, acquire, or use 
     chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons or 
     weapons of mass destruction;
       ``(ii) enable offensive cyber operations through automated 
     vulnerability discovery and exploitation against a wide range 
     of potential targets of cyber attacks; or
       ``(iii) permit the evasion of human control or oversight of 
     automated systems through means of deception or obfuscation; 
     or
       ``(B) accessing a quantum computer that could enable 
     offensive cyber operations or other risks to national 
     security; or
       ``(C) accessing hacking tools.'';
       (2) in section 1752 (50 U.S.C. 4811)--
       (A) in paragraph (1)--
       (i) in subparagraph (A), by inserting ``or remote access'' 
     after ``export''; and
       (ii) in subparagraph (B), by inserting ``or remote access'' 
     after ``export''; and
       (B) in paragraph (2)--
       (i) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by striking 
     ``and in-country transfer of items'' and inserting ``in-
     country transfer, and remote access of items''; and
       (ii) in subparagraph (A)--

       (I) in the matter preceding clause (i), by striking 
     ``release'' and inserting ``release or remote access'';
       (II) in clause (iv), by striking ``; or'' and inserting a 
     semicolon;
       (III) in clause (v), by striking the period at the end and 
     inserting ``; or''; and
       (IV) by adding at the end the following:

       ``(vi) offensive cyber operations.'';
       (3) in section 1753 (50 U.S.C. 4812)--
       (A) in subsection (a)--
       (i) in paragraph (1), by striking ``and'' at the end;
       (ii) in paragraph (2)(F), by striking the period at the end 
     and inserting ``; and''; and
       (iii) by adding at the end the following:
       ``(3) the remote access to--
       ``(A) items subject to the jurisdiction of the United 
     States (without regard to the physical location of the items) 
     that are determined by the President to warrant controls with 
     respect to access by foreign persons or countries of concern; 
     and
       ``(B) the functions of such items.'';
       (B) in subsection (b)--
       (i) by redesignating paragraphs (3) through (7) as 
     paragraphs (4) through (8), respectively; and
       (ii) by inserting after paragraph (2) the following:
       ``(3) regulate the remote access by foreign persons of 
     items as described in subsection (a)(3);''; and
       (C) in subsection (c)--
       (i) by striking ``or in-country transfer'' each place it 
     appears and inserting ``in-country transfer, or remote 
     access''; and
       (ii) by striking ``subsections (b)(1) or (b)(2)'' and 
     inserting ``subsections (b)(1), (b)(2), or (b)(3)'';
       (4) in section 1754 (50 U.S.C. 4813)--
       (A) in subsection (a)--
       (i) in paragraph (3), by striking ``and in-country 
     transfers'' and inserting ``in-country transfers, and remote 
     access'';
       (ii) in paragraph (4), by striking ``and in-country 
     transfers'' and inserting ``in-country transfers, and remote 
     access'';
       (iii) in paragraph (5), by striking ``and in-country 
     transfers'' and inserting ``in-country transfers, and remote 
     access'';
       (iv) in paragraph (10), by striking ``or in-country 
     transferred'' and inserting ``in-country transferred, or 
     remotely accessed'';
       (v) in paragraph (11), by adding at the end before the 
     semicolon the following: ``or remote access''; and

[[Page H5078]]

       (vi) in paragraph (15), by adding at the end before ``; 
     and'' the following: ``or remotely access (including the 
     provision thereof)'';
       (B) in subsection (b), by striking ``or in-country 
     transfer'' and inserting ``in-country transfer, or remote 
     access''; and
       (C) in subsection (d)(1), by amending subparagraph (A) to 
     read as follows:
       ``(A) the export, reexport, or in-country transfer of, or 
     remote access to, items described in paragraph (2), or remote 
     access to items described in section 1742(15), including, in 
     both cases, items that are not subject to control under this 
     part; and''.
       (5) in section 1755(b)(2) (50 U.S.C. 4814(b)(2))--
       (A) in subparagraph (C), by striking ``and in-country 
     transfers'' and inserting ``in-country transfers, and remote 
     access''; and
       (B) in subparagraph (E), by striking ``and in-country 
     transfers'' and inserting ``in-country transfers, and remote 
     access''; and
       (6) in section 1756 (50 U.S.C. 4815)--
       (A) in subsection (a), in the matter preceding paragraph 
     (1), by striking ``and in-country transfer'' and inserting 
     ``in-country transfer, and remote access''; and
       (B) in subsection (b), by striking ``or in-country 
     transfer'' and inserting ``in-country transfer, or remote 
     access'';
       (7) in section 1757(a) (50 U.S.C. 4816(a)), by striking 
     ``or in-country transfer'' and inserting ``in-country 
     transfer, or remote access''; and
       (8) in section 1760 (50 U.S.C. 4819)--
       (A) in subsection (a)(2)(F)(iii), by striking ``or in-
     country transfer'' and inserting ``in-country transfer, or 
     remote access'';
       (B) in subsection (c)(1)(C), by striking ``or in-country 
     transfer'' and inserting ``in-country transfer, or remotely 
     access (including the provision thereof)''; and
       (C) in subsection (e)(1)(A)--
       (i) in clause (i), by striking ``or in-country transfer 
     outside the United States any item'' and inserting ``in-
     country transfer outside the United States any item, or 
     remotely access any item''; and
       (ii) in clause (ii), by striking ``or in-country transfer'' 
     and inserting ``in-country transfer, or remote access'';
       (9) in section 1761 (50 U.S.C. 4820)--
       (A) in subsection (a)(5), by striking ``or in-country 
     transferred'' and inserting ``in-country transferred, or 
     remotely accessed'';
       (B) in subsection (d)(2), by striking ``export'' each place 
     it appears and inserting ``export control''; and
       (C) in subsection (h)(1)(B), by striking ``or in-country 
     transfer'' and inserting ``in-country transfer, or remotely 
     access''; and
       (10) in section 1767 (50 U.S.C. 4825)--
       (A) in subsection (a), by striking ``or reexport'' and 
     inserting ``reexport, or remote access''; and
       (B) in subsection (b)(2)--
       (i) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``and in-country 
     transfer'' and inserting ``in-country transfer, and remote 
     access''; and
       (ii) in subparagraph (C), by striking ``or in-country 
     transferred'' and inserting ``in-country transferred, or 
     remotely accessed''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Kentucky (Mr. Barr) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Meeks) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Kentucky.


                             General Leave

  Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 
legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous material on this measure.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Kentucky?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 8152, the Remote 
Access Security Act.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
Lawler), the author of the bill.
  Mr. LAWLER. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to urge the House to pass my 
bill, the Remote Access Security Act.
  The U.S. export control regime exists to limit American critical 
technology and goods from falling into the hands of adversarial regimes 
and those who answer to them. Export controls are immensely important 
to ensure countries like China can't access U.S. advanced semi-
conductor chips to enhance their own chip development, which has 
implications for their military capacity building, as well.
  Unfortunately, there is a loophole in the current export control 
regime. Chinese companies have been remotely accessing tech covered by 
export controls, enabling the CCP to continue using U.S. chips to 
develop AI and modernize their military forces.
  This must end.
  My bill allows the Commerce Department's export controls authority to 
recover remote access of technology. That way, once my bill is signed 
into law, all exports of chips, including through the cloud, will be 
prohibited effectively closing the loophole.
  The framework to combat China's growing tech developments already 
exist, but it is imperative that Commerce has the tools to make this 
effective.
  I thank Chairman McCaul and all my Foreign Affairs Committee 
colleagues for passing this bipartisan bill through committee, and I 
thank the Speaker for bringing it to the floor today.
  I urge all my colleagues to vote for this commonsense bill.
  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the right to close, and I reserve 
the balance of my time.
  Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, over the past 3\1/2\ years, the Biden 
administration has imposed unprecedented export controls against China 
and Russia. These measures have been highly effective in restricting 
Beijing and Moscow's access to critical U.S. technologies that could be 
used to enhance their military capabilities. We know these controls are 
working because both nations are now seeking ways to circumvent them 
through various loopholes, diversion tactics, and deceptive practices.
  One such loophole could involve PRC companies accessing U.S. chips 
remotely. Right now, our export control laws do not explicitly cover 
the remote access of controlled technologies through a network 
connection, including the internet or cloud computing services. H.R. 
8152 would close that loophole.
  I thank the majority for working with me to reach a bipartisan 
agreement on this bill. Since the markup, we have incorporated 
additional feedback from the administration to appropriately scope the 
bill and specify that offensive cyber operations against the United 
States are another end use that our export controls should be 
addressing.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to vote in favor of 8152, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Barr) that the House suspend the rules and 
pass the bill, H.R. 8152, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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