Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act Muddies the Water on Whether Chinese Semiconductor Ban Applies to Contractors
In this article, the author explains that it remains unclear whether a Chinese semiconductor ban applies to government contractors.
In October 2022, a proposed amendment to the FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was introduced to prohibit contractors from selling certain Chinese semiconductor technologies to federal agencies and from using these same covered products and services. This measure was added through Section 5949 of the NDAA.
Thereafter, the House of Representatives passed a compromise version of the NDAA, which appears to scale back the semiconductor ban by applying it only to federal sales of covered products and services, without also banning contractors from using them. However, the explanatory statement accompanying the NDAA suggests contractors (including their affiliates and subsidiaries) may ultimately be prohibited from using covered semiconductor technologies— which would raise a host of compliance and implementation concerns.
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“Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act Muddies the Water on Whether Chinese Semiconductor Ban Applies to Contractors,” by Robyn N. Burrows was published in the April 2023 edition of Pratt’s Government Contracting Law Report (Vol. 9, No. 4), an A.S. Pratt Publication, LexisNexis. Reprinted with permission.
This article was first published in Blank Rome’s Government Contracts Navigator blog.