BIS notices 6 Nov 2024 public briefing on October space-export-control rules package

Mechanism

Procedural notice scheduling a single public-briefing event so that BIS staff could walk stakeholders through the three companion BIS rules published on 23 October 2024 and accept written questions in advance. The notice was published as 89 FR 87783 (5 November 2024).

The briefing itself ran 1:00-3:00 p.m. EST on 6 November 2024 and was hosted jointly with the Department of Commerce's Office of Space Commerce. The slide deck from the session covered:

• the interim final rule "Revisions to Space-Related Export

Controls" (89 FR 84770; FR Doc 2024-23958), which shifts reasons for control on "specially designed" parts, components, accessories, and attachments under ECCNs 9A004.x and 9A515.x from NS1/RS1 to NS2/RS2 — eliminating licensing requirements for roughly 40 destinations that face only NS2/RS2 controls under the Commerce Country Chart;

• the final rule "Removal of License Requirements for Certain

Spacecraft and Related Items for Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom" (FR Doc 2024-23932), which removes BIS licensing requirements for ECCN 9A515.a.1, .a.2, .a.3, .a.4, and .g spacecraft (remote-sensing, space-based logistics, assembly, and servicing) destined for the three NTIB partners;

• a parallel proposed rule contemplating a new License

Exception Commercial Space Activities (CSA).

A companion DDTC rule (USML Category XV revisions) at the State Department side of the package was discussed but is not a BIS instrument and is filed separately when it issues.

The notice imposes no substantive obligations; it is purely an event-scheduling and outreach instrument. It is filed here as part of the audit trail for the October 2024 space-export liberalisation package — companion to the 19 November 2024 comment-period extension already in the register.

Downstream implications

• Confirms BIS prioritised industry/allied-government outreach

in the narrow window between the 23 October 2024 publication and the 22 November 2024 original comment close — consistent with TechAmerica/AIA, Commercial Spaceflight Federation, and Satellite Industry Association advocacy that the original 30-day comment window was inadequate for a multi-thousand-page rulemaking package.

• Establishes precedent for BIS holding pre-comment-close public

meetings on major dual-use rulemakings — relevant signal for forthcoming AI-compute, biotech, and quantum control packages where similar outreach is likely.

• Procedurally separate from but functionally aligned with the

19 November 2024 comment-period extension (89 FR 91251; FR Doc 2024-26886), which pushed the close to 23 December 2024 partly to incorporate input from this briefing.

Open questions

• Whether the License Exception CSA proposed rule advanced under

the January 2025 administration transition or was paused.

• Whether the AU/CA/UK companion final rule was expanded to

additional AUKUS-aligned destinations (Japan, ROK, NZ) in any follow-on BIS rulemaking after the briefing record closed.

• Whether stakeholder feedback collected via the briefing and

written-questions process drove any specific changes between the 23 October 2024 IFR and any subsequent final rule.