Senators Warren and Scott push law to curb export license driven monopolies

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Rick Scott unveiled legislation on November 19 that would force the Commerce Department to assess market competition before granting export licenses that might result in a single U.S. company becoming the sole supplier to a foreign purchaser. The bill was prompted by scrutiny of Commerce decisions earlier this year to authorize certain semiconductor exports to Huawei for some firms while denying similar requests from their competitors, a sequence of approvals that critics argued could create de facto monopolies and distort competition in strategic export markets.

Under the proposed law, Commerce would be required to perform a so called competitive market review whenever competing suppliers have also applied for broadly similar licenses. The review would require officials to examine whether approval for one company without comparable approvals for others would unduly concentrate supply, harm competition, or create unintended leverage for a single firm in a market that the United States has identified as strategically important. The legislation would also push for more transparent explanations of licensing decisions, seeking to make the criteria and rationale behind approvals publicly clearer while protecting legitimately sensitive national security information.

Advocates of the bill frame it as a protection for fair competition at a time when export controls are increasingly used as instruments of national security and foreign policy. Export licensing carries both economic and diplomatic consequences, because allowing one supplier to dominate a critical market can shape global supply chains, affect allied industrial planning, and alter bargaining positions in long term technology competition. The senators argued that the Commerce Department should balance those considerations against national security imperatives when it acts.

Opponents are likely to argue that adding procedural requirements could slow urgent national security decisions and reveal sensitive policy thinking. Export controls have long been governed by the Export Administration Regulations administered by Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security, and those rules allow flexibility when national security is at stake. Changing the process could force officials to weigh competitive harms alongside security threats in a way that could complicate relations with foreign partners or delay responses to fast moving technological developments.

The bill arrives amid heightened sensitivity over the role of U.S. companies in global semiconductor supply chains. Washington has moved in recent years to limit the flow of advanced chips and related equipment to certain Chinese companies, while also seeking to preserve a resilient industrial base among allies. The episode involving Huawei raised questions about whether licensing choices were being made transparently and fairly, and whether those choices might inadvertently advantage a subset of suppliers.

The Commerce Department had not publicly commented on the measure in early reports. Passage would require bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress and would prompt debate among industry groups, trade partners, and national security policymakers about how best to reconcile competition policy with strategic export controls. The legislation highlights an emerging tension at the intersection of trade law, national security, and industrial policy in an increasingly contested global technology landscape.