WASHINGTON — Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, announced this week that he and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., have introduced four bills aimed at tightening U.S. export controls and limiting China’s ability to access American technology, according to a release distributed by Husted’s office. The release could not be independently verified against the bill text, committee records, or Warner’s office as of this writing.
“America must continue to compete and win in the technology race, but we know that communist China’s strategy has never been to compete, but to steal and exploit,” Husted said, according to the release. “This bipartisan package would strengthen our understanding of China’s actions, improve enforcement and protect American companies, workers and innovations from Chinese espionage.”
The release also attributes a statement to Warner, though it was not independently confirmed with his office. “The U.S. must continue to lead in the technologies that will define the future, and we cannot allow China or other foreign adversaries to exploit American innovation and turn our own technologies against us,” Warner is quoted as saying. “These bipartisan bills make commonsense improvements that will strengthen America’s national security, protect our technological edge, and bolster our global competitiveness.”
According to Husted’s office, the package consists of four separate bills:
The China AI Power Report Act would require the secretaries of commerce and state, in consultation with other federal agencies, to produce an annual report on China’s efforts to build a domestic artificial intelligence supply chain, including progress on chip design, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, subcomponent production, and AI model development. This description is based on the bill summary provided by Husted’s office; the underlying bill text was not independently reviewed for this story.
A second bill, described by Husted’s office as an amendment to the Export Control Reform Act, would extend the statute of limitations for prosecuting export control violations from five years to 10 years. The release states that the Export Control Reform Act currently has no explicit statute of limitations and defaults to the general five-year federal period, and that technology smuggling cases can take years to uncover and prosecute — claims that were not independently verified for this story.
A third bill, which Husted’s office calls the ADVERSARIES Act, would reportedly direct the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security to study whether U.S.-based affiliates of designated Chinese companies are being used to circumvent export controls. This description comes solely from the release.
A fourth bill, referred to by Husted’s office as the BIS STRENGTH Act, would reportedly grant the Bureau of Industry and Security temporary hiring authority to recruit subject-matter experts on export controls for advanced technology.
Husted’s office states that all four bills have companion versions introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on a bipartisan basis, and that the House version of the China AI Power Report Act passed the House Committee on Foreign Affairs by a vote of 47-0 on Jan. 21, 2026. Neither claim was independently verified against House or committee records for this story.
None of the four Senate bills has been scheduled for a vote as of this writing.
