Raja-Bera Bill Puts Up Guardrails On White House AI Exports To China

India-West Staff Reporter

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new bill introduced in Congress aims to prevent the sale of advanced AI chips to China without explicit approval from both the executive branch and Congress. The legislation, titled the “No Advanced Chips for the CCP Act of 2025,” was introduced by Democratic Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi and Ami Bera.

The bill’s introduction follows recent comments from President Trump suggesting an openness to allowing the export of downgraded NVIDIA Blackwell series chips to China. The lawmakers behind the bill argue that even a lesser version of these chips could significantly enhance China’s ability to develop AI supercomputers, posing a threat to U.S. national security and technological dominance.

“We must end the Chinese Communist Party’s practice of acquiring cutting-edge U.S. technology,” said Representative Krishnamoorthi, the Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific. He emphasized that the burden should be on the government to prove that any such sale is in the nation’s security interest, and if Congress doesn’t agree, the deal should not go forward.

Representative Bera added that decisions about exporting the most advanced AI chips “shouldn’t be made unilaterally behind closed doors.”

The bill proposes a rigorous two-step review process for any advanced AI chip export. First, the Secretary of Commerce would need to approve the transaction after a review by key national security officials, including the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretaries of Defense, Energy, and State. Second, the deal would require a joint resolution of Congress for final approval.

The legislation outlines specific criteria for the national security review, such as the potential impact on U.S. technological leadership and the risk of the chips being used for Chinese military applications or human rights abuses. The bill also includes a three-year sunset provision to allow for future adjustments as technology evolves.

The bill defines an “advanced AI semiconductor” based on specific technical thresholds, including its processing performance and memory bandwidth. Representative Jill Tokuda is a cosponsor of the legislation.