House Panel Advances Bills to Boost Defense Exports, AUKUS
The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved several bills July 22 aimed at speeding up the foreign arms sales process, strengthening the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership and enhancing certain Iran sanctions.
The bills include:
- International Traffic in Arms Regulations Licensing Reform Act, which would require the State Department to develop a list of countries that should receive expedited decision-making under the Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) defense export licensing process (see 2507020028)
- Streamlining Foreign Military Sales Act, which would raise the congressional notification thresholds for arms sales to adjust for inflation and geopolitical changes (see 2505290071)
- Abraham Accords Defense Against Terror Act, which would expedite arms sales to countries that have normalized relations with Israel and are working with the U.S. to counter Iran and its terrorist proxies
- Made-In-America Defense Act, formerly the FMS-Only List Review Act, which would direct the State Department to review annually whether any defense exports available through the Foreign Military Sales program but not DCS should become eligible for the more flexible DCS process (see 2507010046)
- Missile Technology Control Revision Act, which would state it's no longer U.S. policy that the MTCR's presumption of denial applies to NATO, major non-NATO allies and Five Eyes countries (see 2505050062)
- AUKUS Reform for Military Optimization and Review Act, or Armor Act, which would clarify that the expedited export license review process under AUKUS also applies to reexports, retransfers, temporary imports and brokering activities (see 2506300048)
- Block the Use of Transatlantic Technology in Iranian Made Drones Act, which would require the Commerce Department to develop a strategy to supplement existing drone-related sanctions against Iran (see 2504040003)
- U.S.-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act, which would direct the administration to identify South African government officials and African National Congress leaders who should be sanctioned for human rights abuses or corruption (see 2504070048)
- Burma Genocide Accountability and Protection Act, or Burma Gap Act, which calls for appointing a special representative and policy coordinator for Burma to, among other things, coordinate multilateral sanctions.