MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WANT BIS TO REGULATE EMERGING AND FOUNDATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES FASTER – HOW DID WE GET HERE, AND WHAT IS LIKELY TO COME NEXT?
Members of the US Congress are becoming increasingly frustrated by the pace at which the Trump administration is working to control exports of emerging and foundational technologies, although identifying and controlling the former is likely to be far easier than the latter.
This congressional frustration is evidenced by two letters recently sent to US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross: the first, sent on 18 October 2019 from Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the second one-month later from senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR).
According to press reports, both letters express concern that in the absence of new export controls, US military competitors, especially China, are moving forward to acquire new technologies in ways that could be detrimental to US national security interests.
This article will provide background and context for this issue and discuss the current situation.
In the first quarter of 2018, congressional staffers met with representatives from industry to discuss early drafts of what would later become the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernisation Act of 2018 (FIRRMA), signed into law as part of the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) for US fiscal year 2019.
Jan-Mar 2020 Issue
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