ICYMI: RM Kamlager-Dove Delivers Remarks at South & Central Asia Subcommittee Hearing on Export Controls and the AI Arms Race

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia, delivered remarks at a subcommittee hearing entitled, "Bureau of Industry and Security FY26 Budget: Export Controls and the AI Arms Race."

You can read her remarks as delivered below:

Thank you, Undersecretary Kessler, for being here today. It is mid-June, and you are the very first administration witness to testify before a House Foreign Affairs Committee this Congress. So, I hope the rest of the administration can follow your example. 

Today, we will examine the FY26 budget request for BIS and discuss the role of export controls within the larger national security objective of ensuring U.S. leadership in the global AI race. I say U.S. leadership because California, my state, is the number one source of semiconductor manufacturing facilities and jobs in this country. These equities are very important to me and all of us. 

Over the past decade, export controls administered by BIS have become an increasingly decisive tool in U.S. foreign policy. Today, BIS is responsible for restricting the PRC's access to the advanced AI semiconductor chips powering China's military and technological advancements. It is also tasked with enforcing an extensive multilateral export controls regime on Russia in response to its unprovoked invasion of a democratic Ukraine. 

Yet, despite its centrality to two critical national security priorities, BIS' resources have not kept pace to meet the demands of its responsibilities. Since 2010, BIS' budget for core export control functions has remained relatively flat, while the number of license applications has nearly doubled from 20,000 a year in 2012 to over 40,000 a year in 2024. I am glad to see the significant funding increase for BIS in the president's budget, which must also be accompanied by increased responsiveness to Congress and greater congressional oversight. These resources will help ensure that the export controls needed to prevent the PRC from accessing leading-edge chips and chip manufacturing equipment can be effectively enforced.

However, I'm concerned that robust export controls cannot make up for the immense damage this administration is doing to America's competitiveness in AI. To win the AI race, we can't just slow China down. We have to simultaneously speed up and sustain our lead in cutting-edge technology. Yet, Trump's budget would upend the federal R&D that is an essential enabler of the semiconductor technology pipeline.

The president's budget slashes the National Science Foundation's research funding for microelectronics and semiconductors by 54%. NIST, which supports foundational research to commercialize new developments in semiconductor technology, would be cut by 28%. After hundreds of employees working on semiconductor policies were DOGE'd, the Department of Energy's Office of Science, which supports national labs and the development of advanced manufacturing processes for semiconductors in the United States, is getting a 14% reduction. Not to mention the administration's culture war against universities and its draconian immigration policies, including the deployment of the National Guard in my home city of downtown LA right now, creating a perilous environment for the high-skilled foreign talent we are dependent on to make up the semiconductor workforce shortage. Trump doesn't need to force a repeal of the CHIPS Act, which has been essential to boosting domestic chip manufacturing, to hurt our advancements in AI.

Turning back to BIS, I'm concerned that Trump is treating export controls as a bargaining chip to undo the problems he created or as clickbait to generate splashy headlines. That's certainly how it appeared when the administration imposed export controls on EDA software as a response to China's restrictions on rare earth minerals, which itself was a response to hikes in U.S. tariffs on China, which were a counter to China's retaliatory tariffs to Trump's original Liberation Day tariffs. And that's certainly how it appeared when the administration rescinded the AI diffusion rule right before Trump's golf trip, where he announced a deal with no pre-baked security guardrails to sell tens of thousands of advanced AI chips to golf companies.

Trump's self-interested foreign policy makes me concerned that export controls, which can backfire if not carefully calibrated, may be wielded irresponsibly. So, I hope to receive some answers today that can help address my concerns.