US House panel advances bill to give Congress authority on AI chip exports

"The United States House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee has overwhelmingly voted to advance a bill that would give Congress more power over artificial intelligence chip exports despite pushback from White House AI tsar David Sacks and a social media campaign against the legislation. Representative Brian Mast of Florida, a Republican and the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced the AI Overwatch Act in December after US President Donald Trump greenlit shipments of Nvidia's powerful H200 AI chips to China."

"The legislation, which still needs to clear the full House and Senate, would give the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Banking Committee 30 days to review and potentially block licences issued to export advanced AI chips to China and other adversaries. The bill claims that those countries of concern also include countries beyond China, such as Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela."

The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted overwhelmingly to advance legislation that would increase congressional oversight of advanced AI chip exports. The bill would give the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Banking Committee 30 days to review and potentially block licences for exports of advanced AI chips to China and other countries of concern including Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela. The measure would require the Department of Commerce to provide lawmakers a full, detailed export application demonstrating that the chips will not be used for military, intelligence, or surveillance by adversarial nations. Advocates say the measure would slow rival AI development and protect US military advantage.

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