Republican Congressman John Moolenaar urged the Trump administration to enforce a January 2025 rule requiring chip manufacturers to scrutinize orders for advanced logic chips from companies that could be fronts for untrusted firms in China and other countries. In an August 6 letter to Jeffrey Kessler, the Commerce Department's top export control official, Moolenaar called the measure "a critical measure to prevent China from accessing U.S. high-performance semiconductors and maintain America's technological edge," and said it was designed "to close the loophole that Huawei and Sophgo exploited." The rule followed revelations that Sophgo had chips manufactured at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. that were later found inside AI processors made by Huawei Technologies, which is under severe U.S. sanctions. The previously unreported letter adds to Republican pressure over what lawmakers see as a more permissive Trump approach to advanced chips reaching China, after the administration said it would not enforce another Biden-era chip regulation tied to the rule, while June criticism from Senator Jim Banks, last month's criticism from Representative Bill Huizenga, and a decision allowing Nvidia to sell advanced AI chips to China widened the dispute.