US lawmaker wants gov't to enforce regulation to ensure 'chipmakers conduct adequate due diligence on their customers' — House member calls for Biden-era export control to be enforced

House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar has penned a letter urging the U.S. government to enforce existing export control measures aimed at stopping Chinese entities from acquiring sophisticated chips from contract chipmakers such as TSMC or Samsung Foundry. The story explores the chipmaking supply chain, including TSMC's $165 billion investments in the U.S., and the findings that China has been reverse-engineering EUV tools.

When Joe Biden was nearing the end of his presidency, he signed a law requiring chipmakers to verify their end customers to stop contract manufacturers from unknowingly producing chips for restricted organizations. However, the Trump administration decided not to enforce the Foundry Due Diligence Rule in May 2025, causing confusion about the application of the foundry-focused requirements.

The letter highlights that these exports allowed Huawei to obtain thousands of controlled Ascend logic dies from TSMC via its front company, Sophgo, in 2023 and 2024. Moolenaar advocates for the government to enforce the current controls instead of creating new export restrictions. He proposes two potential solutions: the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security could provide guidance confirming the worldwide Regional Stability licensing requirement for exports from front-end foundries, or the department could repeal the AI Diffusion Interim Final Rule and amend §744.23 to explicitly reintroduce the requirement for both foundries and OSAT providers.

Moolenaar believes this would clarify interpretations and strengthen the enforcement of existing export controls.