Senator Cotton Delays Vote on Biden’s Pick for Powerful China Job at Commerce

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) speaks during a hearing to examine United States Special Operations Command and United States Cyber Command in review of the Defense Authorization Request for fiscal year 2022 and the Future Years Defense Program, on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 25, 2021. Andrew Harnik/Pool/Getty Images

WASHINGTON—Republican Senator Tom Cotton is holding up a vote to confirm Alan Estevez as the U.S. Commerce Department’s undersecretary for industry and security until he gets answers to difficult questions about technology exports to China.

In a letter dated Oct. 14 and seen by Reuters, Cotton asks Estevez to commit to strengthening U.S. restrictions on exporting semiconductor software and technology to China and to accelerating the roll-out of new rules to tighten export controls for advanced technologies.