[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 74 (Monday, May 5, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H1834-H1836]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MAINTAINING AMERICAN SUPERIORITY BY IMPROVING EXPORT CONTROL
TRANSPARENCY ACT
Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill
(H.R. 1316) to amend the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 relating to
licensing transparency, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1316
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 ``Maintaining American
Superiority by Improving Export Control Transparency Act''.
SEC. 2. LICENSING TRANSPARENCY.
Section 1756 of the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (50
U.S.C. 4815) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(e) Report.--
``(1) In general.--Not later than one year after the date
of the enactment of this subsection, and not less frequently
than annually thereafter, the Secretary, shall, subject to
the availability of appropriations, submit to the appropriate
congressional committees a report on end-use checks related
to, as well as license applications and other requests for
authorization for the export, reexport, release, and in-
country transfer of items controlled under this part to
covered entities.
``(2) Elements.--The report required by paragraph (1) shall
include, with respect to the preceding one year-period, the
following:
``(A) For each license application or other request for
authorization, the name of the entity submitting the
application, a brief description of the item (including the
Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) and reason for
control, if applicable), the name of the end-user, the end-
user's location, a value estimate, decision with respect to
the license application or authorization, and the date of
submission.
``(B) The date, location, and result of any end-use checks,
to ensure compliance with United States export controls.
``(C) Aggregate statistics on all license applications and
other requests for authorization as described in subparagraph
(A).
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``(3) Confidentiality of information.--The information
required to be provided in the reports required by this
subsection (other than the information required by paragraph
(2)(C)) shall be exempt from public disclosure pursuant to
section 1761(h)(1).
``(4) Protecting enforcement information.--In preparing and
submitting a report under subsection (e), the Secretary shall
ensure that information that may jeopardize an ongoing
investigation shall not be included in the contents of the
report.
``(5) Definitions.--In this subsection--
``(A) the term `appropriate congressional committees'
means--
``(i) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of
Representatives; and
``(ii) the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
of the Senate; and
``(B) the term `covered entity' means any entity that--
``(i) is located in a country listed in Country Group D:5
under Supplement No. 1 to part 740 of title 15, Code of
Federal Regulations; and
``(ii) is included on--
``(I) the list maintained and set forth in Supplement No. 4
to part 744 of the Export Administration Regulations; or
``(II) the list maintained and set forth in Supplement No.
7 to part 744 of the Export Administration Regulations.''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Florida (Mr. Mast) and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Olszewski) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida.
General Leave
Mr. MAST. 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 Florida?
There was no objection.
Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Maintaining American
Superiority by Improving Export Control Transparency Act. I wish my
colleague could have picked a shorter name for it, but that is my
friend, Mr. Jackson. He does good legislation, sometimes a little long-
winded on the names.
Export controls are a critical tool for protecting American national
security. Foreign adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party are
working tirelessly to steal and exploit U.S. technology. We have known
this.
The CCP is using its military-civil fusion strategy to fuel China's
military buildup and commit human rights atrocities, just like we spoke
about on Uyghur genocide. No American servicemember should have to face
a foreign adversary armed with U.S. technology, and no act of genocide
should be enabled by American innovation.
As important as export controls are to protecting American lives and
values, they are only as strong as their administration and
enforcement. Every U.S. export control ultimately requires the
government to decide on whether to approve or deny a license for the
item in question.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, or the
BIS, is the lead agency for administering and enforcing U.S. export
controls. As export controls have become more vital to our national
security, the importance of congressional oversight has only increased.
The licensing data for how BIS is administering export controls can be
difficult for Congress to gain access to for oversight purposes.
Last Congress, the Foreign Affairs Committee worked persistently to
uncover that BIS was routinely approving export control licenses for
even the worst actors, such as Huawei and SMIC. Last Congress, the
Foreign Affairs Committee worked to expose this in hearing after
hearing without much help from the Biden administration. Huawei and
SMIC are two of the CCP's national champions and play a critical role
in supporting China's military buildup and human rights abuses.
It is essential that Congress has visibility into how many licenses
are being approved for the worst actors on export control blacklists,
known as the Entity List. This bill will improve transparency and
ensure Congress is able to conduct regular oversight of how BIS is
handling licenses and how effectively our export controls are being
enforced.
I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Jackson), and the gentlewoman
from California (Ms. Jacobs) for introducing this important
legislation. The Foreign Affairs Committee marked up this legislation
last Congress, and it passed the committee and the House floor with
strong bipartisan support. I expect it will receive the same support
today.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the Maintaining American
Superiority by Improving Export Control Transparency Act, and I reserve
the balance of my time.
Mr. OLSZEWSKI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
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. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Texas
(Mr. Jackson), the sponsor of this long-titled legislation.
Mr. JACKSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, today, we are bringing a very
important piece of legislation to the floor, the Maintaining American
Superiority by Improving Export Control Transparency Act, a key piece
of legislation to ensure our country stays ahead of our adversaries.
Businesses and universities in the United States work constantly to
innovate, improve, and invent the best technologies and systems in this
world. This is what keeps America on the leading edge. Our Nation's
determination and commitment to achieving the best has allowed us to
develop the best technologies in all fields. Through strategic
investments under the leadership of President Trump, this will continue
for many years to come.
In today's era of strategic competition, Congress needs to provide
the administration with the tools it needs to ensure American
technologies are not falling into the hands of our adversaries. Malign
actors like China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran would gladly seek to
use our very own goods and technologies against us, whether in military
engagements or on the economic battlefield.
America's open, competitive economy has allowed us to become the
global leader in cutting-edge technologies,
[[Page H1836]]
but in order to maintain this advantage, we must be able to track how
American technology is used around the world.
My bill, the Maintaining American Superiority by Improving Export
Control Transparency Act helps to ensure increased transparency and
accountability in the export control process by creating better
reporting in the licensing application process, giving critical
information to both Congress and the administration.
My bill creates a mechanism for tracking and reporting of export
licenses and can be utilized to form a paper trail to understand where
American-made technologies are going, who is using them, and how they
may be getting diverted to adversarial nations. If our adversaries are
benefiting from American technology, we must know exactly how that
happened and who is responsible.
Further, my bill will provide necessary clarity on how licensing
determinations are made by producing information for each application,
including the applicant, the recipient, and the compliance measures
implemented to uphold export regulations. With this necessary
information in one place, we will have a better understanding of where
American-made technologies are going abroad, who is supposed to have
them, and how we can support the administration to close gaps being
exploited by our adversaries.
The American free market has led to some of the most incredible
technological advances of all time, so it is important that we
modernize our export control process to help protect it. Export
controls are a key national security tool for the administration in
these increasingly dangerous times. Therefore, Congress should swiftly
pass this legislation and send it to President Trump's desk.
As my chairman mentioned, this bill passed the House unanimously in
the 118th Congress. The only difference between this year's bill and
last year's bill is that we have incorporated some helpful technical
assistance provided by the new administration to ensure the legislation
better executes the letter of the law and congressional intent.
I thank Chairman Mast and Ranking Member Meeks for supporting this
legislation and working together to see that this bill made it to the
floor today. I also thank the co-leads of this bipartisan and bicameral
legislation, Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, Senator Jim Banks, and Senator
Mark Warner.
Greater transparency and accountability in export controls is a
critical national security issue that everyone should have an interest
in supporting. I urge all of my colleagues to support this critical
piece of legislation that will enhance our national security and
economic competitiveness while protecting American innovation.
Mr. OLSZEWSKI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for
the purpose of closing.
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.
Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for the
purpose of closing.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for
working to improve transparency and congressional oversight of U.S.
export controls. It is vital. That can't be overstated enough. It is
vital.
I urge all Members to vote in favor of H.R. 1316, and I yield back
the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Yakym). The question is on the motion
offered by the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mast) that the House suspend
the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 1316, 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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