BIS License Fee Prohibition Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5955 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5955

   To prohibit the collection and obligation of any fee collected in 
connection with an export license and require the return of such fee to 
           the holder of the license, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            November 7, 2025

 Ms. Kamlager-Dove (for herself and Mr. Krishnamoorthi) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To prohibit the collection and obligation of any fee collected in 
connection with an export license and require the return of such fee to 
           the holder of the license, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``BIS License Fee Prohibition Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution directly 
        states, ``No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported 
        from any State''.
            (2) Section 1756 of the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 
        (subtitle B of title XVII of the John S. McCain National 
        Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019; 50 U.S.C. 4815) 
        states, ``No fee may be charged in connection with the 
        submission, processing, or consideration of any application for 
        a license or other authorization or other request made in 
        connection with any regulation in effect under the authority of 
        this part.''.
            (3) The placement of export controls on dual-use 
        technologies to the People's Republic of China should be based 
        on assessments of national security and economic 
        competitiveness.

SEC. 3. LICENSE FEES PROHIBITED.

    (a) Prohibition.--No amount may be collected by the Federal 
Government after the date of the enactment of this Act in the form of 
revenue-sharing, fees, or any other monetary arrangement subject to or 
conditional upon which a person receives or maintains the ability to 
benefit from a license or other authorization under the Export Control 
Reform Act of 2018.
    (b) Limitation.--No amount collected before, on, or after such date 
of enactment in any manner described in subsection (a) may be obligated 
or expended for any purpose other than to be returned to the holder of 
the license under subsection (c).
    (c) Compensation.--Not later than 30 days after such date of 
enactment, the Secretary of Commerce shall return to or pay the holder 
of each applicable license or other authorization with respect to which 
any amount was collected before or on the date of such enactment in any 
manner described in subsection (a) the full amount so collected.
    (d) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section may be construed 
to authorize the implementation of any export fee on semiconductors or 
otherwise indicate that such fee is consistent with the requirements of 
the Constitution or of section 1756 of the Export Control Reform Act of 
2018 (subtitle B of title XVII of the John S. McCain National Defense 
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019; 50 U.S.C. 4815).
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