{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-to-lutnick-now-is-the-time-to-preserve-american-ai-dominance", "Cotton to Lutnick: Now is the Time to Preserve American AI Dominance", "2025-10-31", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Patrick McCann (202) 224-2353\n\nOctober 31, 2025\n\nCotton to Lutnick: Now is the Time to Preserve American AI Dominance\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) yesterday sent a letter urging Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to work with industry partners to use anti-diversion technology to address smuggling of export-controlled U.S. chips through Malaysia which undermines American AI leadership while propelling China\u2019s domestic AI industry.\n\nIn part, Senator Cotton wrote:\n\n\u201cMalaysian officials have begun cracking down on illicit diversion of chips and strengthening their own controls to ensure continued access to advanced U.S. chips, but proactive leadership from the United States is welcome. The Commerce Department has an opportunity to provide Malaysia with the support and resources it needs to achieve this goal. Curbing chip smuggling in Malaysia will increase U.S. business opportunities in Southeast Asia, which is crucial as Malaysia seeks to become a regional datacenter powerhouse, hopefully running on American technology.\u201d\n\nFull text of the letter may be found here and below.\n\nOctober 30, 2025\n\nThe Honorable Howard Lutnick\n\nSecretary\n\nDepartment of Commerce\n\n1401 Constitution Avenue, NW\n\nWashington, D.C. 20230\n\nDear Secretary Lutnick,\n\nI write requesting the Commerce Department to address smuggling of export-controlled U.S. chips through Malaysia, a high-risk transshipment point for illegal chip diversion. Chip diversion undermines American AI leadership and propels the growth of China\u2019s domestic AI industry.\n\nTo their credit, Malaysian officials have begun cracking down on illicit diversion of chips and strengthening their own controls to ensure continued access to advanced U.S. chips, but proactive leadership from the United States is welcome. The Commerce Department has an opportunity to provide Malaysia with the support and resources it needs to achieve this goal. Curbing chip smuggling in Malaysia will increase U.S. business opportunities in Southeast Asia, which is crucial as Malaysia seeks to become a regional datacenter powerhouse, hopefully running on American technology.\n\nFor example, the U.S. government could provide guidance, recommended best practices, and information sharing, where appropriate, to help Malaysian officials build a robust foreign direct investment (FDI) and beneficial ownership information (BOI) screening program. Such screening will allow the Malaysian government to more accurately assess the numerous new datacenter entities in the country for Chinese Communist involvement.\n\nThe U.S. government should also consider working with all willing industry partners to implement software and firmware-based anti-diversion techniques on advanced chips shipped to Malaysia. As is often the case, U.S. companies are at the forefront of developing creative and innovative technical solutions, which will help add layers of assurance against illegal diversion. To support the semiconductor industry in their efforts, it may be beneficial for U.S. and Malaysian officials to develop priority customs clearance procedures for shipments of advanced U.S. chips with anti-diversion mechanisms.\n\nMalaysia provides an excellent opportunity to test novel anti-diversion strategies, giving the U.S. government and companies a chance to iron out implementation details. In fact, the Trump White House\u2019s AI Action Plan calls on the Department to \u201cexplore leveraging new and existing location verification features on advanced AI compute to ensure that the chips are not in countries of concern.\u201d\n\nWhile Congress works to codify President Trump\u2019s directives to help with U.S. export promotion and enforcement, I hope you take advantage of this chance to leverage American talent and technology. President Trump has acknowledged export controls as a critical tool of U.S. economic and technological statecraft. We have no time to waste.\n\nThank you for your attention to this matter.\n\nSincerely,\n\nTom Cotton\n\nUnited States Senator\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-to-lutnick-now-is-the-time-to-preserve-american-ai-dominance"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0140009690076113, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}