House Bill Would Update BIS IT Systems
Reps. Jason Crow, D-Colo., and Tom Kean, R-N.J., reintroduced a bill Aug. 8 that would authorize $100 million over four years to upgrade the Bureau of Industry and Security’s aging information technology systems.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
The BIS IT Modernization Act is intended to help the agency better track the flow of dual-use items to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands. It would replace the bureau’s main IT systems with a “unified environment” that provides “seamless” case and customer relationship management.
The bill also would deploy “cutting-edge data fusion, analytics, and decision-making capabilities, as well as supply chain illumination tools, and additional commercial data sets to streamline and standardize the export license adjudication process, and better assess global industrial relationships.” Data-sharing with industry, other federal agencies and international partners also would be improved.
Matt Borman, a former senior BIS official, said in June that the agency was making progress in using advanced data analytics tools but still had plenty of room to improve (see 2506180046).
The bill, which Crow previously introduced in the last Congress, was referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., proposed similar legislation in the last Congress as well (see 2407180045).