21. Department of Commerce · Major · Needs Congress

Move ITA and parts of BIS to the U.S. Trade Representative

Not started

Printed page 664 21. Department of Commerce

“The International Trade Administration (ITA) and parts of the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) should be streamlined and moved to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), along with the Development Finance Corporation; the U.S. Trade and Development Agency; the Export–Import Bank; and other trade-related programs spread across the federal government—as well as considering whether many of these programs should exist within the federal government”

What has happened

Aug 27, 2026 Not started
ITA and BIS remain bureaus of the Department of Commerce. No reorganization plan, executive order or bill transferring them to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative was found. The administration moved the other way on BIS: the FY2026 request added $122 million to it ("a more than 50-percent increase") inside Commerce, the FY2027 Budget adds $215 million more, and P.L. 119-74 (2026-01-23) funds both bureaus in its Department of Commerce title.
- FY2026 Discretionary Budget Request — Department of Commerce, Fair Trade and Trade Enforcement (+$134 million, of which +$122 million for BIS, inside Commerce)
  Primary Executive branch May 2, 2025
- Public Law 119-74, Department of Commerce Appropriations Act, 2026 — funds the International Trade Administration and the Bureau of Industry and Security as Commerce bureaus
  Primary Congress Jan 23, 2026

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

Negative searches (exact strings in docs/research/ch-21.md): no Federal Register document since 2025-01-20 matches “Department Organization Order”; a full-text search for “International Trade Administration” together with “Trade Representative” and “transfer” returns three unrelated documents (an OPM SES notice, a CBP proposed rule and a FinCEN special measure); the fr-presdocu and presidential-actions Corpus files contain no document titled for USTR reorganization; the 119th-Congress bills Corpus (18,433 records) has no bill titled for moving ITA or BIS.
Contrary Primary sources, loaded this session. The FY2026 request and P.L. 119-74 now carry as evidence on the not started event (playbook §3b); the FY2027 volume stays here as the third source saying the same thing:
- FY2027 Budget, Department of Commerce, “Protects U.S. Innovation and National Security” (+$215 million for BIS above the 2026 enacted level) — https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/budget_fy2027.pdf
The same Quote also asks that the Development Finance Corporation, USTDA and the Export–Import Bank move to USTR; those are separate Recommendations (Chapter 23’s Export–Import Bank asks are Contested) and are not tracked here.

Action: transfer
Object: International Trade Administration and Bureau of Industry and Security
ID: 1810