74–231PS
2001
TO EXTEND THE EXPORT ADMINISTRATION ACT UNTIL
NOVEMBER 20, 2001;
MARKUP BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS - FIRST SESSION
ON
H.R. 2602 and H. Con. Res. 178
JULY 25, 2001
Serial No. 107–32
Printed for the use of the Committee on International
Relations
Available via the World Wide
Web: http://www.house.gov/international—relations
For sale by the
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COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS
HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois,
Chairman
BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York
JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa
DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New
Jersey
DAN BURTON, Indiana
ELTON GALLEGLY, California
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida
CASS BALLENGER, North
Carolina
DANA ROHRABACHER, California
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California
PETER T. KING, New York
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio
AMO HOUGHTON, New York
JOHN M. McHUGH, New York
RICHARD BURR, North Carolina
JOHN COOKSEY, Louisiana
THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado
RON PAUL, Texas
NICK SMITH, Michigan
JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania
DARRELL E. ISSA, California
ERIC CANTOR, Virginia
JEFF FLAKE, Arizona
BRIAN D. KERNS, Indiana
JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia
TOM LANTOS, California
HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York
ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA,
American Samoa
DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio
CYNTHIA A. McKINNEY, Georgia
EARL F. HILLIARD, Alabama
BRAD SHERMAN, California
ROBERT WEXLER, Florida
JIM DAVIS, Florida
ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT,
Massachusetts
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
BARBARA LEE, California
JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL,
Pennsylvania
EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon
SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada
GRACE NAPOLITANO, California
ADAM B. SCHIFF, California
DIANE E. WATSON, California
THOMAS E. MOONEY, SR., Staff
Director/General Counsel
ROBERT R. KING, Democratic
Staff Director
FRANK RECORD, Senior
Professional Staff Member
DANIEL FREEMAN,
Counsel/Parliamentarian
MARILYN C. OWEN, Staff
Associate
C O N T E N T S
Markup of H.R. 2602, To extend the Export Administration Act
until November 20, 2001
Text of H.R. 2602
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC.,
SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
The Honorable Henry J. Hyde, a Representative in Congress from
the State of Illinois, and Chairman, Committee on International Relations:
Prepared statement concerning
H.R. 2602
The Honorable Robert Menendez, a Representative in Congress
from the State of New Jersey: Prepared statement concerning H.R. 2602
The Honorable Jeff Flake, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Arizona: Prepared statement concerning H.R. 2602
The Honorable Henry J. Hyde: Prepared statement concerning H. Con.
Res. 178
APPENDIX
The Honorable Benjamin A. Gilman, a Representative in Congress
from the State of New York: Prepared statement concerning H. Con. Res.
178
TO EXTEND THE EXPORT
ADMINISTRATION ACT UNTIL NOVEMBER 20, 2001; WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 2001
House of Representatives,
Committee on International
Relations,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:20 a.m. in Room
2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Henry J. Hyde (Chairman of the Committee)
presiding.
Chairman HYDE. The Committee will come to order.
Pursuant to notice, I now call up the bill H.R. 2602 for
purposes of markup and move its favorable recommendation to the House. Without objection,
the bill will be considered as read and open for amendment at any point.
[The bill, H.R. 2602, follows:]
74231a.eps
Chairman HYDE. The Chair yields himself 5 minutes for the
purpose of presenting a statement.
Today the Committee will consider a measure I introduced
yesterday, together with the Ranking Member, Mr. Tom Lantos, to extend the Export
Administration Act of 1979 for 3 months, through November 20 of this year.
The Export Administration Act was extended for 1 year in the
106th Congress, through August 20 of this year, and it is now clear that
neither the House nor the Senate will be able to consider a comprehensive
rewrite of this 21-year-old statute by that date.
The prompt enactment of this stop-gap authorization will,
however, enable the Bureau of Export Administration of the Department of Commerce
to continue to administer and enforce our export control licensing system and
should give the Congress sufficient time to consider a full rewrite of this
measure.
As many of my colleagues are aware, the Export Administration
Act of 2001, S. 149, is scheduled for floor action in the Senate in the near future,
and it is our intention in this Committee to consider this measure next
Wednesday, August 1st.
It is my intention, due to the fact that Mr. Lantos and I have
an important meeting this morning, to limit opening statements on this matter
to Mr. Lantos and myself. Mr. Menendez has made a request, and assuming that he
can be brief, we will yield to him to make a statement. But any other Member
who wishes to make a statement will be, without objection, included in the
record.
Now I turn to Mr. Lantos, the Ranking Member.
[The prepared statement
of Mr. Hyde follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE
HONORABLE HENRY J. HYDE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS,
AND CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
H.R. 2602
Today the Committee will consider a measure I introduced yesterday,
together with the Ranking Member, to extend the Export Administration Act of
1979 for three months, through November 20 of this year.
The Export Administration Act was extended for one year in the
106th Congress, through August 20 of this year, and it is now clear that neither
the House nor the Senate will be able to consider a comprehensive rewrite of
this 21-year-old statute by this date.
The prompt enactment of this stop gap authorization will,
however, enable the Bureau of Export Administration of the Department of Commerce
to continue to administer and enforce our export control licensing system and
should give the Congress sufficient time to consider a full rewrite of this
measure.
As many of my colleagues are aware, the Export Administration
Act of 2001, S. 149, is scheduled for floor action in the Senate in the near future,
and it is our intention in this Committee to consider this measure next
Wednesday, August 1.
I will now turn to the Ranking Member, Mr. Lantos, for any
remarks he might want to make.
Mr. LANTOS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I want to
commend you for your leadership on extending the Export Administration Act. The
current act will expire on August 20th. On that day, our ability to implement
United States dual-use export controls will terminate.
Now, the Senate has not acted on its legislation for new export
authorization, and it is highly unlikely that it will do so before September.
We are slated to mark up in this Committee a version of the Senate bill next
week. But it will not go through the Armed Services Committee and it will not
reach the floor of the House prior to September.
The authority to maintain export controls can be continued
under an executive order, as was done from 1995 to last year, but the lack of statutory
authority will nevertheless compromise the Administration's ability to fully
implement controls on militarily useful goods and technology. Clearly, more
time is needed to enact a new Export Administration Act. The bill that Chairman
Hyde and I are introducing will accomplish this by extending statutory
authority of the Export Administration Act of 1979 until the end of November
2001.
This is the only responsible course of action given the
circumstances. I urge my colleagues on the Committee and in both the House and
the Senate to give their support to the extension that Chairman Hyde and I are
introducing.
And before yielding the
floor, Mr. Chairman, I want to extend my personal apology to our distinguished guests.
Chairman Hyde and I are slated to go to the White House in the next few minutes
to meet with the President on his recent trip to Europe, which will prevent us
from attending the balance of this session. I yield my time.
Chairman HYDE. Mr. Menendez.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the week
before last, my staff was approached by yours about cosponsoring a bipartisan
approach on export controls, and I was glad to see that finally we were on the
way to doing the people's work together on this absolutely critical issue. But
after a further review, the Chairman earnestly let it be known that
philosophically he was not in agreement on our approach, and he honorably
withdrew his offer and put a counteroffer on the table, which we seriously
considered but ultimately, equally, did not accept. I appreciated the way that
you professionally and courteously approached us on the issue, and I believe we
did the same with your counteroffer.
We reached out again to the other side of the aisle to gather a
solid bipartisan group to introduce what I believe is a very well-crafted piece
of legislation, S. 149, the Export Administration Act, to which I alluded in
our last hearing. Ninety senators supported it, attesting to its strong bipartisan
appeal.
We reached out to the Republican leadership but did not get the
courtesy of a response. We reached out to colleagues on this Committee, and we
are very glad indeed to have received a positive response from Messrs. Houghton
and Flake, and on the other side, Mr. Blumenauer.
So it seemed to me that bipartisanship had won the day, and
last Thursday night we introduced H.R. 2557, the House version of the Export Administration
Act. But before I could get up the next morning, we read the morning papers to
be informed that last Friday the Majority leadership, and Mr. Dreier
specifically, reintroduced our bill verbatim. It is identical in all respects
but one. It cuts us out.
Mr. Chairman, when the rubber hit the road, a truly bipartisan
effort was unceremoniously and not very graciously squashed by the leadership. That
is a shame, because I do not believe that this bill will ultimately pass with
Majority votes alone.
I appreciate the way in which the Chairman has handled the
issue, but I do not appreciate the manner in which those who call for
bipartisanship and those of us who seek to engage in it are subsequently
treated on a matter that will not pass simply with Majority votes. I thank the
Chair for the opportunity, and I ask that my full statement be entered in the
record.
Chairman HYDE. Without objection, so ordered.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Menendez follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE
HONORABLE ROBERT MENENDEZ, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW
JERSEY
Mr. Chairman: The week before last, my staff was approached by
your staff about cosponsoring a bipartisan approach on export controls. I was
glad to see that finally we were on the way to doing the people's work together
on this absolutely critical issue.
But after further review, the Chairman earnestly let it be
known that philosophically he was not in agreement with our approach, and he honorably
withdrew his offer and put on the table a counteroffer which we conditionally
accepted, but subject to review as well.
We gave serious consideration to inclusion of an amendment
related to North Korea in return for a mark-up just a couple of days before recess.
Although seemingly attractive, after further review, we determined that we did
not agree with this approach and withdrew as well.
Mr. Chairman, I appreciated the way you professionally approached
us and withdrew your support. I did the same with your counteroffer.
We reached out again to the other side of the aisle to gather a
solid bipartisan group to introduce what I believe is a very well-crafted piece
of legislation, S.149, the Export Administration Act of 2001, to which I
alluded in our last hearing. That 90 Senators support it attests to its strong bipartisan
appeal.
We reached out to our colleagues on this committee and were
very glad indeed to receive a positive response from Messrs. Houghton and Flake,
and on our side, Mr. Blumenauer. Bipartisanship, it seemed, had won the day.
Together, last Thursday night we introduced HR 2557, the House version of the
Export Administration Act of 2001.
And then came a sudden change. We reached out to the Republican
leadership, but did not get the courtesy of a response. Before I could read the
morning papers, staff informed me last Friday that the Majority leadership—Mr.
Dreier specifically—re-introduced our bill verbatim. It is identical in all
respects but one: it cut us out.
Mr. Chairman, when the rubber hit the road, a truly bipartisan
effort was unceremoniously—and not very graciously—squashed by your leadership.
That is a shame, because I do not believe this bill will pass with Majority
votes alone.
And what about the famous rhetorically bipartisan
Administration? My understanding is that they are fully behind this legislative
railroading. In fact, we were advised that only a Majority-sponsored bill had
any hopes of passage.
Mr. Chairman, notwithstanding your own candor, this is a direct
slap in the face. It puts the lie to the Majority leadership's and the Administration's
claims of a bipartisan spirit in moving forward on this bill. This is just not
the way to do business. But it is especially upsetting because it so glaringly
contradicts so many public statements in support of bipartisan efforts.
In fact, I wonder if there is an Administration witness here
that can honestly tell us right here and right now what happened. Do they not
believe in practicing what they preach in terms of bipartisanship. I would
appreciate an answer, Mr. Chairman.
As I have said, this is a critical issue. I may have
differences with you, Mr. Chairman, but I believe we have been honest with each
other. If we want to move forward together on this, I want to suggest that some
adjustments need to be made at the White House, whose bipartisanship I praised
in my last statement, and in your leadership. I am not confident, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman HYDE. I would like to say to the gentleman that I am
not aware and not privy to the machinations that apparently are machinating, and
I welcome the gentleman——
Mr. LANTOS. Would you spell that, Mr. Chairman?
Chairman HYDE. I can hardly pronounce it—Mr. Flake of Arizona
for a brief statement.
Mr. FLAKE. I will insert a statement for the record, but I just
want to echo concerns that this does expire next month. We could be actually debating
legislation to improve it rather than simply extend it, and I would certainly
prefer that but hope that we move quickly on it in the future.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Flake follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE
HONORABLE JEFF FLAKE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ARIZONA
While Chairman Hyde should be commended for his diligence in
attempting to ensure that the Export Administration Act does not expire next month
on August 20, I would like to draw the Committee's attention to legislation I
cosponsored last week with some of my colleagues on the Committee.
This legislation, the Export Administration Act, would not
merely extend the current existing export control regime, but improve upon it
in areas that are of concern not only for industry, but for those who are
concerned with our national security. The EAA adopts the recommendations of defense
and national security experts by establishing a smarter, more effective export
control framework tailored to fit today's world, rather than the world of 1979.
Both Vice President Cheney and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice have
indicated their full and enthusiastic support for the bill.
In areas such as end use and user controls, the EAA goes above
and beyond the current law, and codifies current regulation. The EAA also establishes
tough new criminal and civil penalties for export control violations, which go
significantly further than the slap on the wrist violators currently face.
It is not likely that the Senate will also extend current law
for three months. Given this improbability, we are risking expiration of
current law. Should that occur, the International Economic Emergency Powers Act
(IEEPA) will take effect, and we will see even lower penalties for offenders,
and also court challenges to the authority of the Bureau of Export
Administration to implement the EAA of 1979 under IEEPA. The longer the
Congress delays, the more likely it is that a court would rule that BXA lacks
the authority to implement the EAA of 1979 under IEEPA.
I fear that another delay in reauthorizing the EAA will only
encourage inactivity on this issue in the Congress. It is time to act
responsibly and bring our export control system into the 21st century.
Chairman HYDE. Very well. I understand there are no amendments.
Therefore, the question occurs on the motion to report the bill, H.R. 2602,
favorably.
All in favor, say aye.
Opposed, no.
The ayes have it and the motion to report favorably is adopted. Without objection, the Chairman is authorized to move to go to conference, pursuant to House Rule 22. Without objection, the staff is directed to make any technical and conforming changes.