Commerce Notes Delay in Proposed Rule for Foundational Tech

A Bureau of Industry and Security official acknowledged delay in BIS' proposed rulemaking for foundational technologies, saying she and other top Commerce Department officials expected the notice to have been published by now. “I personally thought foundational would be out faster than it is. It was not just higher-level people,” said Hillary Hess, BIS regulatory policy division director, at a Tuesday panel hosted by the American Bar Association. Hess and another official said in June the notice would be released soon (see 1907110044). Hess declined to give an updated timetable now. She briefly said of the proposal for emerging technologies that Commerce has been meeting with “a number of companies” to understand what emerging technologies are most important for U.S. industry and which technologies they’re interested in pursuing. Hess said Commerce created “technical teams” of engineers to tackle emerging tech categories. “They’re basically doing evaluations to look at what should be proposed for control and … what shouldn’t be,” Hess said. It’s possible the teams won’t see a need for new controls, she said. If Commerce issues controls on emerging technologies, Hess suggested the agency wants to do it soon: “We would like to get some stuff out the door.”