Federal Register Issues Leading to Delay in Entity List Update, BIS Official Says

The Commerce Department has not been able to officially designate 33 entities for weapons proliferation and human rights abuses due to publication delays at the Federal Register, a Commerce official said. The designations, which were announced May 22, will add companies and government agencies to Commerce’s Entity List for involvement in China’s detention and abuses of its Uighur population (see 2005220058).

“Those are at the Federal Register. I am still not quite clear on when they will be published,” said Hillary Hess, Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security's director of regulatory policy, speaking during a June 2 Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting. Hess said “some rules are not going through that quickly over at the Register” and suggested the Federal Register may be facing “difficulties” with remote work. “We don't know what day they're going to be added [to the entity list] because we don't know the publication dates,” she said.