New Export Control Act Passes Out of House Committee

A bill updating export control procedures passed unanimously out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee after a hearing April 17. The last export control legislation expired in 2001, and the current export control regime has since operated under emergency powers.The bill instructs the administration to maintain a control list, to update it as emerging technologies evolve, and to adjust the level of control of items as conditions change. It also says the maximum fine in a civil case can be twice the value of the exports that were sold to a party that was ineligible to import those items, but if the value was less than $150,000, the maximum fine can be $300,000. In criminal cases, the maximum fine could be $1 million.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., complained that the bill still leaves too much power at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue with regard to deciding when countries can be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. She noted that while Congress can disapprove of such a removal, it would require a veto-proof majority to do so. "We are missing an opportunity," she said. "Some administrations will bargain a [removal] for next to nothing." Ros-Lehtinen, who is a Cuban exile, pointed to a decision on Cuba as one of those times that the removal was a mistake. Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., replied, "It does move in the direction you want to see, maybe not as robustly as you'd like." He said one of the important aspects of strengthened congressional oversight of export control regimes is that the bill requires the administration to talk with Congress at the beginning of its deliberations to remove a country from the list.

The bill also asks the administration to consider restricting the export of machinery that would allow even allies to build military equipment if that would undermine the U.S. military-industrial base.