Why it Matters
The House Foreign Affairs Committee is set to mark up more than two dozen bills on April 22 that would reshape how the United States controls exports of semiconductors, artificial intelligence systems, and synthetic biology. These are the technologies at the center of the U.S.-China technology competition. The package represents one of the most comprehensive overhauls of export control law since the Export Control Reform Act of 2018, and it arrives as the semiconductor industry has spent millions lobbying Congress on exactly these questions.
What gets marked up next week could determine whether American chipmakers face tighter restrictions on overseas sales, whether AI companies gain new pathways to global markets, and whether the federal bureaucracy enforcing these rules gets the personnel and technology it needs to do the job.
A Sweeping Legislative Package
The markup, scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, covers more than 20 bills touching nearly every dimension of U.S. export control policy. Committee Chair Brian Mast and Ranking Member Gregory Meeks will preside over a session that spans enforcement, licensing, personnel, multilateral coordination, and emerging technology restrictions.
The bills cluster around several distinct policy questions:
Tightening enforcement. H.R. 5853 would increase civil penalties under the Export Control Reform Act. H.R. 8202 would extend the statute of limitations for export control violations to ten years — a significant expansion that would give federal prosecutors more time to build cases against violators. H.R. 6322 would create a whistleblower incentive program modeled on similar mechanisms in securities law.
Restricting semiconductor and AI exports. H.R. 8170 targets semiconductor manufacturing equipment specifically, imposing export restrictions on certain equipment and components. H.R. 6058 would establish a multilateral framework for semiconductor technology supply chain coordination — an acknowledgment that unilateral controls have limits when allied nations don't align their policies.
Governing AI exports. H.R. 6996 cuts in the opposite direction from the restriction bills, seeking to facilitate the export of U.S. AI systems, computing hardware, and standards globally — a nod to industry concerns that overly broad controls cede market share to competitors. H.R. 8283 takes the harder line, aiming to prevent foreign adversaries from extracting technical features from closed-source American AI models.
Reforming the licensing bureaucracy. H.R. 4920 would require the Bureau of Industry and Security to modernize its IT systems, authorizing $25 million annually through 2029. H.R. 4505 would expand the number of export control officers stationed abroad — the Bureau currently has only 11 officers covering dozens of foreign countries. H.R. 8289 would require expeditious processing of license applications, a perennial industry complaint.
Targeting China specifically. H.R. 8036 would require the Secretary of State to evaluate China's military-civil fusion strategy — the policy by which Beijing integrates civilian technology development with military applications. H.R. 8287 would require a comprehensive report on the effectiveness of U.S. semiconductor export controls on China, a tacit acknowledgment that the current regime's impact remains contested.
The Lobbying Backdrop
The semiconductor export controls hearing arrives after a sustained campaign by industry to shape this legislation. Lobbying disclosure data from April 2025 through early 2026 shows significant expenditures by companies with direct stakes in the outcome.
ASML US LLC, the Dutch-American semiconductor equipment company whose machines are central to global chip production, filed quarterly disclosures addressing "U.S. Export Control Policy" and "Export Control policies impacting chip production," reporting $70,000 per quarter in the second half of 2025. Applied Materials reported $60,000 per quarter on "U.S. export controls and leadership in semiconductor manufacturing technologies." KLA Corp. filed consistently on "Implementation of the Export Control Reform Act" at $50,000 per quarter.
On the AI side, Anthropic reported $1,010,000 in a single quarter on lobbying that included the "Artificial Intelligence Diffusion Rule and Export Controls." Americans for Responsible Innovation reported $450,000 to $470,000 per quarter on "Issues related to artificial intelligence and export controls."
The House Foreign Affairs Committee lobbying picture also includes Teradyne Inc., which reported $280,000 across multiple quarters on "Export control regulations and issues impacting the semiconductor industry," and TSMC Arizona, which addressed "export control measures on artificial intelligence hardware including legislation impacting export control process for advanced semiconductor technologies" at $50,000 per quarter.
The semiconductor industry lobbying disclosure record reflects an industry that has been engaged on both sides of the policy tension: pushing back against restrictions that could limit overseas sales while simultaneously seeking stronger protections against Chinese technology acquisition.
The Committee's Composition and the Amendments on the Table
Multiple committee members have filed amendments in the nature of substitutes, signaling active negotiation over the final bill texts. Rep. Michael Baumgartner has offered a substitute to H.R. 8170 on semiconductor equipment restrictions. Rep. Bill Huizenga filed a substitute to H.R. 6058 on multilateral supply chain coordination. Rep. Jim Baird offered a substitute to H.R. 8036 on the Export Administration Review Board. Rep. Sydney Kamlager filed a substitute to H.R. 4505 on export control officer staffing.
The breadth of substitute amendments suggests the bills have been subject to significant negotiation ahead of the markup — standard practice, but notable given the scale of the package.
The export control policy hearing 2026 also includes H.R. 5543, a Baltic security assessment bill requiring a report on threats to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — a measure with 74 cosponsors that reflects the committee's broader concern with allied security alongside the technology competition with China. H.R. 8321 on the Artemis Accords and space norms rounds out a package that spans from chip fabs to orbit.
Access the Legis1 platform for comprehensive political news, data, and insights.