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22 March 2001
Senate Committee Advances Export-Control Reform Legislation
by
Bruce Odessey
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- With the Bush administration signaling support, a Senate
committee has approved a bill that would reform the Cold War-era law
for advanced technology export controls.
In a March 22 session, the Senate Banking Committee voted 19-1 to
approve the bill, which is viewed by some observers as having a good
chance of becoming law.
President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, sent a
letter March 21 to committee Chairman Phil Gramm explaining that she
and the secretaries of state, defense and commerce would support the
bill if it included a few suggested changes.
By voice vote the committee approved an amendment that Gramm said
included most or all of the administration's suggestions.
Essentially the same bill was approved by the Banking Committee 20-0
in the previous session of Congress. A small group of opponents
employing delaying tactics, however, succeeded in blocking full Senate
consideration of the bill.
At issue is the Export Administration Act (EAA), which regulates
exports of computers, machine tools and other dual-use technology --
goods that have both military and civilian applications. The U.S.
Department of Commerce enforces those regulations.
Attempts to reform the EAA failed 12 times in the 1990s over
disagreements between exporters on one side and national security
interests on the other.
The EAA lapsed in August 1994, and export controls were maintained
under emergency law until late in 2000 when Congress finally passed a
bill that extended EAA retroactively and through August 20, 2001.
Gramm said the Banking Committee bill intends to eliminate controls on
items no longer controllable and to strengthen controls for the
remaining crucial items -- "to build a higher fence around a smaller
number of things."
The bill would effectively eliminate U.S. export controls on
technology available from foreign sources or available in mass-market
quantities. It would allow the administration to anticipate changes in
controls because of rapid changes in availability or in technology.
It would require the administration to develop a guidance system for
exporters by assigning countries to different tiers representing
different levels of threat to U.S. national security.
It would sharply increase penalties for export-control violations
although, at Bush administration request, the committee halved the
proposed top penalties -- to $5 million per criminal violation and
$500,000 per civil violation.
The bill would require timely resolution of inter-agency disputes over
decontrolling any item, but also elevate the Defense Department's
participation in the process.
It would instruct the president to press other countries to improve
their own export-control systems and to cooperate to strengthen
multilateral export-control regimes, including the much-derided
Wassenaar Arrangement on dual-use items and conventional arms.
The amendment approved by the committee included the administration's
suggestions for giving the president more flexibility to maintain
existing controls for reasons of national security, terrorism, concern
about an end-user and international obligations.
It would also add flexibility in creation of the country tier system.
The amendment removed a provision aimed at eliminating food and
medicine exports from any sanctions imposed for foreign policy
reasons. According to Senator Michael Enzi, sponsor of the bill, the
administration asked for removal of the controversial provision to
avoid conflicts as it works out a regulation on the same issue
required as part of an agriculture spending measure passed in 2000.
According to Banking Committee staff, in exchange for the proposed
changes, the administration has agreed to resolve two longstanding
controversial export-control issues. One issue, called "deemed
exports," concerns restrictions on foreign workers who might gain
information on sensitive technology that they could divulge to foreign
colleagues.
The other issue concerns disputes about jurisdiction over a number of
items between the Commerce Department, which controls dual-use
exports, and the State Department, which maintains much stricter
controls on munitions exports.
Another amendment adopted by the committee would repeal existing law
basing control of computer exports on the number of million
theoretical operations per second (MTOPs) a computer could execute.
Gramm described that measure as obsolete given the increased
capability for linking computers together.
The bill would authorize the dual-use export-control system through
September 2004 unless the president reports to Congress on its
implementation and submits recommendations about improving it -- in
that case authority would continue indefinitely.
Voting alone against the bill was Senator Richard Shelby, one of about
six Republican senators who blocked consideration of the bill in 2000
over national security concerns.
Paul Freedenberg, government relations director at the Association for
Manufacturing Technology, predicted after the vote that, with
administration support, the Senate would likely pass the bill over
opponents' objections.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, which has not voted on these
issues for years, Freedenberg said he expected crucial support from
Representative Henry Hyde, the Republican chairman of the
International Relations Committee.
Hyde has expressed general support for Bush administration positions,
said Freedenberg, who was under secretary of commerce in the Reagan
administration.
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