Licence Enhancement Act passes House Foreign Affairs Committee

23 June 2026

The Bureau of Industry and Security License Administration Enhancement Act has passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee and has been introduced to the US Senate – press release. It was introduced on a bipartisan basis by Senators Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Andy Kim (D-NJ).

The Bill aims to strengthen US export controls on advanced technologies and improve the efficiency of licence reviews by the Bureau of Industry and Security.  It is motivated by concerns of advanced technologies reaching China (see most recent BIS settlement), growing delays in licence reviews, and uncertainty on the relevance of “is-informed letters” issued to alert companies about their obligations under the Export Administration Regulations (Anthropic recently suspended access to two AI models in response to an is-informed letter).

Proposed reforms include:

• Creating Technical Advisory Committees on chips, AI, quantum computing and weapons of mass destruction, for them to submit recommendations on advancing national security and foreign policy to the Secretary of State;

• Publicly enforcing or terminating is-informed letters within 60 days;

• Requesting a report from the Department of Commerce on the efficacy of the BIS rule aimed at cracking down on AI chip smuggling, within 120 days;

• Requiring the department of Commerce to publish standards that licencing officers should consider when considering a licence under the presumption of denial standard within 90 days of enactment;

The Bill has passed out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee by majority, and will next be considered by a full chamber of the House of Representatives.