H.R. 6322 — Stop Stealing our Chips Act

This section states congressional findings that violations of U.S. export control laws—particularly the diversion of leading-edge artificial intelligence chips to adversaries—threaten U.S. national security; that whistleblowers who report such violations help authorities identify and mitigate threats; and that a whistleblower incentive program would enhance enforcement by encouraging high-value information and promoting corporate self-policing and compliance.

This section establishes a whistleblower incentive program and related protections by inserting new section 1761A into the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (50 U.S.C. 4801 et seq.), which authorizes the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security to administer dual-use export controls for national security and foreign policy purposes. (As background, the program pays financial awards to eligible whistleblowers—defined to exclude federal employees acting in their official capacity and certain sanctioned or denied parties—for original information, derived from the whistleblower's independent knowledge, that leads to fines exceeding $1 million against violators of the act or its regulations, orders, licenses, or authorizations, or to forfeitures deposited in the Export Compliance Accountability Fund; awards also apply to related enforcement actions by other U.S. government entities and may cover pre-enactment violations reported after enactment.) The section further directs the Secretary of Commerce to (1) establish the program and a secure public online portal for reporting violations or illicit exports/reexports within 120 days of enactment; (2) allow anonymous reporting (with identity potentially required for awards); (3) conduct an initial credibility review within 60 days, pursue credible formal investigations urgently, and provide status updates to whistleblowers at 60 days and at least every 180 days thereafter (subject to confidentiality); and (4) bar individuals from future reports upon multiple prior frivolous submissions.

This section establishes a rule of construction providing that nothing in this Act or its amendments may be construed to affect, reduce, or divert any amounts required by law to be deposited into the Crime Victims Fund or the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund. (The Crime Victims Fund receives fines from federal offenses (with specified exceptions), penalty assessments, forfeited bonds, and other sources to support grants for crime victim compensation and assistance programs administered by the Office for Victims of Crime.)