Washington, DC -- Congressman Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY-05), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, released the following statement following the Trump administration’s decision to greenlight AI chip sales to China, which NVIDIA made public on February 25:

“In December, we called on the Department of Commerce to follow the law and provide us information about the Trump administration’s approval of any sale of advanced AI chips to China. We’ve finally received information about the administration’s first license approval and are now more concerned than ever that the Trump administration is undercutting U.S. national security by approving this sale. Congress must pass bipartisan legislation to prevent China from obtaining our advanced technology in order to protect U.S. economic and national security.” 

Last December, Ranking Members Meeks and Warren invoked the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (ECRA), demanding that the Department of Commerce turn over information related to the administration’s plan to approve the sale of advanced AI chips to China despite the significant military application potential of this technology. 

Under ECRA, the Department of Commerce is required to provide any information obtained in administering the Export Administration Regulations, including license applications, upon the request of the ranking minority member of the appropriate committee. The administration was nearly two months late in providing the requested license information. The public disclosure of the details of those license applications is prohibited under ECRA, unless our committees “determine that the withholding of that information is contrary to the national interest.”

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