On May 8, 2024, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the United States House of Representatives introduced the Enhancing National Frameworks for Overseas Critical Exports (ENFORCE) Act—a bill to expand the authority of the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) to control the export of artificial intelligence (AI) systems and other emerging technology with national security implications. The bill would also expand BIS authority to regulate U.S. person support for the development of AI systems and software and other emerging technology.

The bill seeks to ensure that China and other adversaries cannot access U.S. AI innovation to advance their military and cyber capabilities to harm the United States. BIS already has authority under the Export Control Reform Act (ECRA) to identify and regulate emerging technologies and has imposed controls on some specific use cases involving AI software and technology, although the agency has yet to impose broad export controls on AI. While BIS has implemented robust controls on advanced computing chips and related manufacturing equipment, the lawmakers are addressing a perceived gap in controls for AI systems and software with national security implications. This proposed legislation would expand and clarify BIS’s authority to regulate exports and support from U.S. persons concerning AI activities.

The bill was reported out of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on May 22, 2024, by a vote of 43-3.

"The U.S. government has the tools it needs to keep critical hardware with national security ramifications out of the hands of our adversaries’ militaries,” said Chairman McCaul. “But we don’t have those same clear tools to keep the software that powers advanced technologies – the AI systems themselves – from them."

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