Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Prioritizing National Security in Export Controls Act of 2022”.
Prioritizing National Security in Export Controls Act of 2022
A BILL
To provide for the transfer of export control authorities from the Department of Commerce to the Department of Defense, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Findings
Congress makes the following findings:
In 2018 Congress on an overwhelming bipartisan basis passed the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 requiring the Department of Commerce to tighten restrictions on transfers of emerging and foundational technologies to high risk countries, especially China, but there has been little progress ever since.
The Department of Commerce has shown itself inept to reconcile its mission to protect United States national security with its objective of promoting United States exports to high-risk countries, especially China.
By August 2022, a Department of Commerce-led process that reviews United States technology exports to China has approved almost all requests and has overseen an increase in sales of some particularly important technologies.
There are only 70 Chinese entities on the Department of Commerce’s current entity list, despite that tens of thousands of Chinese entities may meet the United States criteria for military end-user export restrictions.
The Bureau of Industry and Security, responsible for enforcing export control under the Department of Commerce, has not taken a single action since the passing of the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 to restrict foundational technology from being transferred to China.
In May 2022, the Bureau of Industry and Security dropped foundational technology as a criterion, culminating its defiance of Congress.
Sec. 3 Sense of Congress
It is the sense of Congress that export control authority should be taken away from the Bureau of Industry and Security of the Department of Commerce since the Bureau has manifestly been unable to resolve the conflict of interest between promoting trade and protecting United States national security through enforcing restrictions on technology transfer to high-risk countries, especially China.
Sec. 4 Transfer of export control authorities from the Department of Commerce to the Department of Defense
Transfer of export control authorities—
In general— Notwithstanding any provision of the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 or any other provision of law, all authorities provided to the Department of Commerce, including the Bureau of Industry and Security, regarding implementation and enforcement of matters relating to export control shall be transferred to and carried out by the Defense Technology and Security Administration of the Department of Defense.
Implementation— The Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of Defense shall take such actions, including the promulgation of regulations, as may be necessary to implement or otherwise carry out this subsection.
Transfer of amounts— Twenty percent of the unobligated balances, as of the date of the enactment of this Act, of amounts made available for “Department of Commerce—Bureau of Industry and Security—operations and administration” account for fiscal year 2022 shall be transferred to and merged with amounts otherwise made available to the Defense Technology and Security Administration for such fiscal year to carry out subsection (a).
Prohibition on transfer of certain Senior Executive Service positions—
In general— Notwithstanding any other provision of law, beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, no individual employed in a Senior Executive Service position related to export control in Department of Commerce, including the Bureau of Industry and Security, may be permitted to transfer from such position to a position in the Defense Technology and Security Administration of the Department of Defense.
Senior Executive Service position defined— In this subsection, the term “Senior Executive Service position” has the meaning given that term in section 3132(a)(2) of title 5, United States Code.