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The U.S. Commerce Department’s efforts to limit China and Russia’s access to advanced computer chips made in the United States are inadequate and will need more funding to thwart their ability to manufacture advanced weapons, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, according to the Associated Press.
The Biden administration imposed export controls on advanced microchips to limit China and Russia’s ability to obtain them (from the United States or its allies) after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is approaching its third year!
According to the report, which the Associated Press has seen, the agency’s Bureau of Industry and Security does not have the resources to enforce export controls, as it has relied heavily on U.S. chipmakers voluntarily complying with the rules.
But the push to strengthen enforcement of export controls comes as the incoming Trump administration says it is looking to significantly reduce the size and scope of the federal government.
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” to dismantle parts of the federal government.
The Bureau of Industry and Security’s budget, at about $191 million, has been essentially flat since 2010, when the budget is adjusted for inflation.
“While the Bureau of Industry and Security’s budget has been flat for a decade, the bureau is working hard around the clock to fulfill its mission and protect America’s national security,” Commerce Department spokesman Charlie Andrews said in a statement responding to the report.
With “the necessary resources from Congress, the agency will be better equipped to meet the challenges that come with our evolving national security environment,” he added. chips5
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In a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Wednesday, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the subcommittee’s chairman, cited news reports that the Russian military continues to buy components from Texas Instruments through front companies in Hong Kong to illustrate how export controls fail as an effective tool.
In a statement, the Democratic senator called on the Commerce Department to take immediate action and crack down on companies that allow U.S.-made semiconductors to power Russian weapons and Chinese ambitions.
Texas Instruments said it opposes the use of its chips in Russian military equipment and the illicit diversion of its products to Russia.
“Our policy is to comply with export control laws, and any shipments of our chips to Russia are illicit and unauthorized,” the company said in a statement. “If we find evidence of product diversion, we investigate and take appropriate action.”
Texas Instruments is not the only case. In September 2024, the subcommittee released a report that found that combined exports from four major U.S. advanced chipmakers nearly doubled from 2021 to 2022 to Armenia and Georgia.
Both of these countries are home to front companies known to help Russia obtain advanced chips made in the United States despite export controls.
At the same time, the subcommittee asserted that China has built extensive, barely disguised smuggling networks that enable it to continue to profit from U.S. technology!
The U.S. government has been gradually expanding the number of companies affected by these export controls in China, as President Joe Biden’s administration has encouraged increased investment in chip manufacturing in the United States.
But Chinese companies have found ways to evade export controls in part because of a shortage of China experts and Chinese-speaking personnel tasked with enforcing export controls in trade.
The agency’s current budget limits the number of end-use product checks, or physical inspections abroad of distributors or companies that receive U.S.-made chips and are presumed to be the end users of the products.
The Commerce Department currently has just 11 export control officers deployed around the world to conduct such checks, the report said.
The committee made several recommendations in its report, including that Congress allocate more money to hire additional export control officers, impose higher fines on companies that violate the controls, and require foreign entities to conduct periodic reviews of advanced chip companies’ export control plans.
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