US agency tasked with monitoring tech export controls facing budget crunch
- The Bureau of Industry and Security, a Commerce Department unit, has a growing portfolio, including restricting exports to Russia and China
- But the agency urgently needs more resources, one expert says, ‘to reflect its new role at the centre of US technology and national security policy’
The US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), the federal agency tasked with preventing strategic technology from falling into the hands of US adversaries, is struggling with a growing mandate and, experts say, decades of underinvestment.
Even before US President Joe Biden’s administration placed technology at the core of the US-China rivalry, restricting access to advanced technology after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year had stretched the limited resources at the bureau, a division of the Commerce Department.
Then in October, the White House expanded the scope of export restrictions to choke off China’s capabilities in advanced semiconductors and artificial intelligence, swelling the bureau’s portfolio.
The BIS was founded in 2001 to ensure “an effective export control and treaty compliance system, and … continued US leadership in strategic technologies”, according to the Commerce Department website.
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Some experts argue that the agency urgently needs more resources to continue its mission.