Section 1248 Report Delay Hampers Export Control Reform
The government’s delay in releasing a report on export control reforms continues to prevent movement on legislation that would relax regulation of satellite components, House Foreign Affairs Committee staffer David Fite told the Satellite 2012 conference late Wednesday. HR-3288, introduced last year by House Foreign Affairs Ranking Member Howard Berman, D-Calif. (CD Nov 3 p13), remains in limbo as a result of the slowness, Fite said. The bill would give the Executive Office of the President authority to remove commercial satellites and components from a munitions list closely regulated by the State Department.
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The report remains stuck in interagency governmental review and timing remains unclear, said Lou Ann McFadden, chief of the Strategic Issues Division within the Defense Technology Security Administration (DTSA). The 1248 study is required under the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act. The Defense and State departments issued an interim 1248 report on the issue in May 2011. Sales of items on the munitions list require obtaining difficult-to-obtain licenses, a process that some in the satellite industry say has hurt U.S. satellite production.
A companion Senate bill is expected to emerge in coming weeks, which will improve chances for legislative action, said Fite. “What we need to move forward is the release of the 1248 report,” he said. “My rule of thumb for predicting the report’s release is take today’s date, add three weeks to it, and tomorrow, repeat,” said Fite. The report, now “two years late,” should be released with great fanfare, he said. The delay also means “it’s almost too late” for this Congress, considering the process still required for the legislation to progress, said Fite.
There’s challenges beyond the 1248 report, said Mike Gold, director of Washington operations at Bigelow Aerospace. “Having the 1248 report come out on time, which it didn’t, and if comes out three weeks from now,” it wouldn’t make a difference, he said. Export control reform doesn’t have the momentum to get over the “political hurdles” and as long as Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., an opponent of reforms, “still draws breath in the Senate,” any change is unlikely, said Gold. With Kyl set to retire, there may be a better chance in the next Congress, he said.