H.R. 5955

119 HR 5955 IH: BIS License Fee Prohibition Act
 U.S. House of Representatives
 2025-11-07
 text/xml
 EN
 Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.
 I
 119th CONGRESS  1st Session
 H. R. 5955
 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.
1.
Short title
This Act may be cited as the   BIS License Fee Prohibition Act  .
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.
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 ).