BIS Practices Raising Tech Concerns

Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security rules and procedures raise technology concerns, the department's Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting (see 2106090049) was told. The industry is especially concerned by BIS rules on military uses, said Tina Termei, an Amazon lawyer speaking on behalf of CompTIA members. The rules impose “unreasonable” obligations on companies that may not have the expertise and resources to do necessary due diligence, Termei said Tuesday. “Unlike the United States government that has these resources, that's not what these companies do,” Termei said: “They're not investigators, they are not experts on the complicated world of” military intelligence. She urged BIS to consider making its military end-user list “exhaustive”: “This way, everybody will have the same rule book, which means people and companies can actually follow it. They'll have the list, and they can comply.” Termei said CompTIA members complain about lengthy licensing times. Average license processing in FY 2020 was 23 days, a BIS spokesperson told us. "Each license application is evaluated on its own merits and decisions are made on the merits." Officials didn't comment Wednesday on the other tech concerns.