Congress demands public audit of China semiconductor export controls
H.R. 8287 — Semiconductor Controls Effectiveness Act of 2026 · Filed by Greg Stanton (D-AZ) · 6 cosponsors · Introduced Apr 15, 2026 · Reported out
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill requires the State Department's intelligence office to produce a detailed, public report within one year assessing whether U.S. semiconductor export controls on China are actually working. The report must inventory all controls, analyze their impact on China's military and AI capabilities, measure harm to U.S. companies, identify controls that fail without security benefit, and recommend improvements—with input from industry, academics, and agencies. The report must be unclassified and posted online.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a mandatory public report on export control effectiveness, not a change to export policy itself. It is fundamentally a transparency and oversight instrument designed to force evidence-based evaluation of existing national security controls.
What the text implies
- Public disclosure of export control effectiveness may reveal vulnerabilities in U.S. enforcement or gaps that adversaries could exploit, creating a tension between transparency and operational security.
- The report's requirement to assess whether controls 'disproportionately harm US industry' without security benefit may create political pressure to weaken controls that are working but costly to semiconductor firms, even if strategically sound.
- Mandatory stakeholder engagement with private-sector semiconductor companies gives industry a formal voice in shaping the narrative around control effectiveness, potentially biasing the assessment toward industry-friendly conclusions.
- The bill does not require the report to assess whether foreign competitors (e.g., TSMC, Samsung) benefit from U.S. controls that constrain U.S. firms, creating a blind spot in competitive analysis.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill mandates transparency and public disclosure of export control effectiveness, enabling citizens and Congress to evaluate whether national security policies are achieving their stated goals or simply harming U.S. industry without reciprocal benefit. This strengthens democratic accountability over a major geopolitical policy.
Who stands to gain
- U.S. semiconductor manufacturers (potential relief from controls deemed ineffective)
- U.S. semiconductor equipment makers (potential relief from controls deemed ineffective)
Named in the bill
Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research, Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, Director of National Intelligence, People's Republic of China, U.S. semiconductor industry, U.S. semiconductor equipment manufacturers, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
Where it stands
6 cosponsors: 4 Democrats, 2 Republicans.
- Apr 15, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Apr 15, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Foreign Affairs · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs”
- Apr 22, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Apr 22, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 43 - 0”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
4 lobbying clients named this bill on 4 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $2,396,909 in lobbying spend. A filing names 38 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 72% of bills with at least one filing.
Greg Stanton, the sponsor, reported $696,299 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Software & Information Industry Association — $1,396,909 on 1 filing
- Semi — $470,000 on 1 filing
- Semiconductor Industry Association — $460,000 on 1 filing
- Demand Progress Action, Inc — $70,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (5,416 characters) on Jun 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress demands public audit of China semiconductor export controls” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr8287 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.