Posted on 09/07/2001 2:46:56 PM PDT by freedomnews
Thursday September 6 7:14 PM ET Senate Approves Export Control Reforms
By Doug Palmer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a victory for the Bush administration and high-tech manufacturers, the U.S. Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved the first major overhaul of export controls in 22 years on goods like supercomputers with commercial and military uses.
The Senate voted 85-14 to approve the Export Administration Act of 2001, after three days of debate and behind-the-scenes wrangling over final details of the bill.
``The last time there was a major change (to U.S. export controls on ``dual-use'' goods), Jimmy Carter was president, bell bottoms were in style, disco was king,'' said Sen. Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican and a principle author of the bill. ``It's been a long time and we needed to do something.''
The Bush administration pushed hard for legislation, which Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) and other cabinet aides said in a letter to the Senate would give Bush ``the authority and flexibility he needs to administer a stronger, updated export control system.''
Commerce Secretary Don Evans urged the House of Representatives ``to act expeditiously'' on its own export control bill. Rapid advances in technology require the United States to have a modern export license system so its manufacturers can compete in world markets, he said.
``Yesterday's supercomputer is today's Playstation,'' Evans said, referring to a popular video game system.
A key feature of the legislation, which had the backing of Senate Democratic and Republican leaders, would allow the Commerce Department (news - web sites) to remove export controls from items available in the mass market or from foreign competitors.
Computer and electronics manufacturers complain current restrictions put them at a disadvantage since foreign competitors face less rigorous controls.
``If you can walk into a Radio Shack and get it, it's too late to protect it,'' said Sen. Phil Gramm (news - bio - voting record), a Texas Republican. What's needed instead is ``a higher fence around a smaller number of export items,'' he said.
Opponents, including Sen. Fred Thompson (news - bio - voting record), a Tennessee Republican, and Sen. John McCain (news - bio - voting record), an Arizona Republican, argued the reforms would make it easier for China and ``rogue nations'' such as Iraq to obtain technology that could be used to build weapons directed against the United States.
But supporters also said the legislation would bolster national security by increasing the fines for violations and giving President Bush (news - web sites) more authority to control exports in the face of terrorist or other threats than he has under the 1979 Export Administration Act.
A one-year extension of that legislation expired on Aug. 20. Since then, Bush has used his authority under the International Economic Powers Act to maintain exports, as former President Bill Clinton did when previous extensions of the 1979 legislation expired in the 1990s.
The legislation would also allow the Bush administration to devise a new framework for controlling high-tech computer exports. Current restrictions based on a measurement known as MTOPS, or millions of theoretical operations per second, are outdated, industry officials said.
Ken Kay, executive director of the Computer Coalition for Responsible Exports, urged House members to scale back a version of the export control bill approved in early August by the International Relations Committee.
Most of the amendments added by the panel ``only create complicated and bureaucratic procedures,'' Kay said. ``The bill ... turns back the clock on export control reform instead of moving ahead with much-needed modernization.''
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