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Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security
On January 28, 2005, President Bush designated Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration Peter Lichtenbaum to serve as Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security. As Acting Under Secretary, Mr. Lichtenbaum is in charge of the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), which seeks to advance U.S. national security, foreign policy, and economic interests. BIS oversees issues at the intersection of business and national security, including strategic trade controls, imports and foreign acquisitions that affect U.S. security, enforcement of antiboycott laws, and industry compliance with international arms control agreements.
In his capacity as Assistant Secretary, Mr. Lichtenbaum is responsible for developing BIS’s policies regarding controls on the export of dual-use items for national security, foreign policy, nonproliferation, and short supply reasons. He chairs the inter-agency Advisory Committee on Export Policy, and manages BIS’s participation in multilateral export control regimes. In addition, he oversees BIS’s programs to ensure that industrial resources are available to meet national and economic security requirements, and manages BIS activities regarding the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Biological Weapons Convention, and the U.S.-International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Additional Protocol. Mr. Lichtenbaum joined the Commerce Department from the Washington, D.C.-based law firm of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, where he was a partner in the firm’s international practice group. Mr. Lichtenbaum principally handled matters involving international trade, including U.S. export controls and economic sanctions programs, the application of the World Trade Organization (WTO) trade agreements reached in the Uruguay Round, and trade litigation. Prior to joining Steptoe & Johnson, Mr. Lichtenbaum worked at the Department of the Treasury on issues of international law and economic policy. He graduated from Harvard Law School and received a Master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University ’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University , concentrating in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.