Two U.S. Navy servicemembers, Jinchao Wei and Wenheng Zhao, were arrested in California as part of two separate cases for "transmitting sensitive military information" to China, DOJ announced Aug. 3.

Fried Frank law firm last week released its 2023 International Traffic in Arms Regulations Enforcement Digest, providing a “legal and compliance practitioner's reference guide” on ITAR enforcement. The document includes an overview of recent and past ITAR penalties, including actions taken this year against American 3D printing company 3D Systems (see 2302270078) and U.S.-based telecommunications company VTA Telecom (see 2305310040). The document also includes a table of various enforcement actions, dating to 2001, grouped with the penalty issued in the case, the U.S. Munitions List Categories involved, the countries involved and the number of violations.

Despite some opposition from Democrats, the House Foreign Affairs Committee this week advanced multiple bills designed to ease technology sharing restrictions within the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership. Two bills would create new license exceptions for certain defense exports to Australia and the U.K., and another would authorize the sale of Virginia Class submarines to Australia to help the Biden administration implement AUKUS, a deal that commits the U.S. to delivering the submarines within the next decade (see 2303130035).

The State Department appointed Timothy Betts acting deputy assistant secretary for the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, according to DDTC’s personnel page, which was updated this month. Betts, who was previously the acting coordinator for counterterrorism and acting special envoy for the global coalition to defeat the Islamic State group, started in the new role in May, according to his LinkedIn page. Betts is the latest official to take over after the departure of Mike Miller in December, who left to become the deputy director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (see 2212120004). Miller had been temporarily replaced by Catherine Hamilton, DDTC’s licensing director. An agency spokesperson at the time said the “position will rotate among DDTC directorates office directors until a new permanent deputy assistant secretary is formally selected and announced."

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The Commerce Department published its spring 2023 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security and the Census Bureau, including new rules that will add more entities to the Entity List and finalize new export filing requirements.

The State Department’s recently published spring 2023 regulatory agenda continues to mention rules that will update export controls for items on the U.S. Munitions List and make other changes to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

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The U.S. is currently drafting a list of technologies that will be covered by its new defense trade authorization, which will be used to expedite defense technology transfers under the Australia-U.K.-U.S. partnership. Although the new mechanism won’t require any new authorities from Congress, it’s designed to eventually be supplanted by broader revisions to U.S. defense trade regulations, the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls said this week.

House lawmakers submitted a host of proposed export control- and sanctions-related amendments as part of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, including measures that could ease defense technology sharing restrictions, harmonize the Entity List with certain U.S. sanctions and investment restrictions and place new export control requirements on items destined to China and Iran. Other amendments could lead to new sanctions on Chinese technology companies and government officials, add the USDA to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., establish a new sanctions coordination office in the State Department and more.