BIS final rule — redesignation of ICTS supply-chain regulations from Office of the Secretary (15 CFR Part 7) to BIS (15 CFR Part 791)

Regulatory• Neutral~🇺🇸 US · BIS✎ 2026-05-11

announced 18 Jul 2024

effective 18 Jul 2024

sectors ict-supply-chain

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Regulatory

Issuer

🇺🇸 US

Targets

none named

Status

effective 18 Jul 2024 · stage not filed

Sourcing

🟢 primary-OJ 2 primary

🇺🇸 US issued this regulatory measure, touching ict-supply-chain. It reads as neutral.

RBI 1📌 stable

Theme momentum

1themes this action belongs to

Western and allied industrial-policy stack

14 filings in 90d

→ steady

The Department of Commerce published a final rule redesignating the regulations implementing Executive Order 13873 (Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain) from 15 CFR subtitle A, part 7 (Office of the Secretary of Commerce) to 15 CFR subtitle B, chapter VII, part 791, under the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). The redesignation reflects the formal transfer of ICTS-transaction review authority from the Secretary of Commerce to BIS's new Office of Information and Communications Technology and Services (OICTS). The rule is non-substantive — it relocates the existing regulatory text without altering the scope of covered ICTS transactions, the foreign-adversary list, the review procedures, or any substantive obligations on parties. Effective on publication (18 July 2024) without notice and comment because it is an internal agency reorganization.

Analyst notesShow

Mechanism

EO 13873 (May 2019, Trump 1) declared a national emergency over foreign- adversary ICTS supply-chain threats and directed Commerce to issue implementing regulations. Those regulations originally landed in 15 CFR subtitle A, part 7 — i.e., under the Office of the Secretary, where they had been issued under direct Secretarial authority. In 2023 the Department stood up a dedicated Office of Information and Communications Technology and Services (OICTS) inside BIS to operate the ICTS programme as a sustained regulatory function rather than a one-off Secretarial action.

This final rule completes that organisational transfer on paper:

removes 15 CFR subtitle A, part 7 (reserving the slot), and
redesignates the text as 15 CFR subtitle B, chapter VII, subchapter E,

part 791 — the BIS regulatory home that now contains all four ICTS subparts (general, transaction review, connected vehicles, recordkeeping).

The rule changes no obligations, no covered-transaction definitions, and no foreign-adversary list. It is the legal scaffolding that lets BIS — rather than the Office of the Secretary — issue and amend later substantive ICTS rules. The January 2025 Connected Vehicles final rule (2025-00592) and subsequent ICTS rulemakings drop into part 791 because of this redesignation.

Downstream implications

Procedurally enables every later BIS-issued ICTS rule (Connected

Vehicles 2025, future Subpart D additions) without a separate Secretarial signature path.

Confirms OICTS as the institutional home of ICTS enforcement — a

parallel regulator alongside BIS Export Administration (EAR) and OFAC (sanctions), with overlapping but distinct authorities over foreign- adversary technology.

Does not broaden or narrow the substantive perimeter — analysts

watching for an actual scope change should treat this as a no-op baseline event and focus on the substantive rules that cite Part 791 (CV rule; any future drone, IaaS, or smart-device subparts).

Open questions

When will BIS-OICTS publish the next substantive Part 791 subpart

(drones / UAS, smart-grid, IaaS know-your-customer)?

Will any pending ICTS transaction reviews initiated under the old

Part 7 numbering be re-noticed under Part 791, or simply continue unchanged?

Sources

Primary: Federal Register — Redesignation of Regulations for Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain (FR Doc 2024-15258, 89 FR 58259) · GovInfo Federal Register HTML — 89 FR (Thursday, July 18, 2024) issue 138

Secondary: eCFR — 15 CFR Part 791 Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain · Morgan Lewis — Securing the ICTS Supply Chain: Commerce Issues Final Rules Pursuant to EO 13873 (Dec 2024)

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Mechanism

This final rule completes that organisational transfer on paper:

removes 15 CFR subtitle A, part 7 (reserving the slot), and

redesignates the text as 15 CFR subtitle B, chapter VII, subchapter E,

part 791 — the BIS regulatory home that now contains all four ICTS subparts (general, transaction review, connected vehicles, recordkeeping).

Downstream implications

Procedurally enables every later BIS-issued ICTS rule (Connected

Vehicles 2025, future Subpart D additions) without a separate Secretarial signature path.

Confirms OICTS as the institutional home of ICTS enforcement — a

parallel regulator alongside BIS Export Administration (EAR) and OFAC (sanctions), with overlapping but distinct authorities over foreign- adversary technology.

Does not broaden or narrow the substantive perimeter — analysts

watching for an actual scope change should treat this as a no-op baseline event and focus on the substantive rules that cite Part 791 (CV rule; any future drone, IaaS, or smart-device subparts).