U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Passes Two AI Bills, Strengthening Congress' Control Over Chinese Chips and Regulatory Authority

Legislative actions in the U.S. Congress on artificial intelligence (AI) chips and technology export policies have made new progress. The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed two bills related to AI safety and export controls this Wednesday, which will be submitted for full chamber consideration, highlighting Congress' proactive role in restricting China's AI technology and high-end chips.

The "AI Oversight Act," led by Republican Congressman Brian Mast, was passed by the committee on Wednesday. The bill stipulates that if the executive branch issues licenses for advanced AI chip exports, the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Banking Committee will have a 30-day review period to examine and block chip exports to China and other adversarial countries. Mast stated that the bill aims to ensure that the United States' most advanced AI chips are "not used by the Chinese military," maintaining the U.S. technological advantage in global AI competition.

At the same time, another bill titled the "China AI Power Report Act" also passed the committee. This bill, proposed by the end of 2025, requires the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to submit an annual report assessing China's artificial intelligence capabilities and reviewing whether the export controls on high-end AI chips align with national security needs. The purpose of the bill is to ensure the U.S. maintains its technological leadership and monitors China's AI development in military and economic fields, preventing China from acquiring key AI hardware or using automated systems in port infrastructure for cyberattacks.

Although both bills were passed by the committee, there are still disagreements within Congress and the White House. David Sacks, the White House AI official, had previously opposed the "AI Oversight Act" and shared a post on the social platform X, stating that the bill aimed to weaken Trump's authority, being orchestrated by "anti-Trump" factions and former officials from Obama and Biden administrations, and specifically named Dario Amodei, CEO of the AI company Anthropic.

Amodei has consistently publicly opposed exporting high-end AI chips to China, stating on Tuesday: "Exporting these chips would be a major mistake, somewhat like selling nuclear weapons to North Korea." Some conservative figures such as Laura Loomer also described the bill as "pro-China sabotage disguised as oversight."

Mast, the proposer of the bill, strongly refuted the criticisms, stating that Trump's previous decision to prevent ASML from selling the most advanced chip manufacturing equipment to China and banning the export of NVIDIA Blackwell chips demonstrated the president's foresight on technological security.

Both bills need to pass through full chamber votes in the House and Senate before being sent to the president for signing into law.

Previously, the administration had taken action to adjust chip export rules. On January 13, the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a final rule, changing the export review of NVIDIA H200, AMD MI325X, and similar or lower-performance chips from "presumed denial" to "case-by-case review." According to the new rule, exporters must provide technical, commercial, and end-user certifications and confirm whether their customers' remote end users are located on specific watch lists before applying the new review policy.

In addition, shortly after the House Foreign Affairs Committee completed the hearing on "Winning the AI Arms Race Against China," President Trump announced a 25% tariff on imported advanced AI chips. The tariff applies to all advanced AI chips not required by non-U.S. technology supply chains, showing that the administration is using trade tools in conjunction with export controls and congressional legislation to prevent critical AI technologies from falling into the hands of potential adversaries.

Source: rfi

Original: toutiao.com/article/1855006136459275/

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