BERMAN-ROHRABACHER NOT SURE THING TO CLEAR CONGRESS
Getting support of Rep. Rohrabacher (R-Cal.) was important for chances of bill that would return satellite export controls to Commerce Dept. to clear Congress, officials said. Jim Lewis, dir., Center for Strategic and International Studies told us “getting Rohrabacher on is important for helping its chances” because of bipartisan co-sponsors. “I think that I have managed through my tenacity to pull Berman and the aerospace industry over to a policy that’s more responsible than the ones they were backing in the past,” Rohrabacher told us. Bill introduced May 3 by Rep. Berman (D-Cal.) and Rohrabacher would return satellite export controls from State Dept. to Commerce Dept., reversing action Congress approved in 1999 (CD May 7 p3), though State Dept. and Defense Dept. would have right to veto any license approval by Commerce for national security reasons.
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Congressional source said passing bill probably will be struggle. “Getting any bill through Congress is a tough job,” source said. “We're hopeful the stars are aligned the right way. More members are aware” of satellite industry’s concerns, source said. “I don’t see this as a liberalization of controls,” Rohrabacher said. “The controls on technology going to unfriendly countries and potential enemies will be as tough if not tougher than before, but what the bill does permit is for a loosening of restrictions on countries that are democratic and friendly to the United States.” “I heard mixed things about its chances of passage. It might run into some opposition on the Senate side,” Lewis said. “I think the same 5 senators that are opposing the Export Administration Act are going to have some questions about this bill.”
Satellite Industry Assn. (SIA) Exec. Dir. Clayton Mowry endorsed proposed legislation, saying bill “allows the Commerce Dept. to have licensing authority” while providing for “national security agencies to have the ability to review and object to a particular license.” According to SIA survey, current satellite export controls cost U.S. commercial telecom satellite manufacturers based in Cal. $1.2 billion in contracts and more than 1,000 jobs. Mowry said Rohrabacher’s co-sponsorship of bill “bodes better for the bill,” since “Rohrabacher has been a tough critic on this issue.” He said “if we can convince him, we think we have a chance” with so-called congressional hawks.
Delays in processing license applications are hurting satellite industry, Mowry said. “You have to get many, many more licenses” under State Dept. than Commerce Dept. “We've applied for an additional 2,000 licenses last year under the State Dept system,” Mowry said, even though “the majority of our activity is with NATO allies.” “This bill should not in any way make it easier for there to be technology sales or transfers to a hostile power like Communist China but at the same time it should facilitate and make easier to send to countries like Belgium or Italy,” Rohrabacher said.
Bill would help industry almost immediately, Mowry said. Transferring licensing authority back to Commerce, “would remove one of the advantages a foreign competitor has over U.S.” in market. “The monitoring regime is very tight,” Lewis said. “Do you have to have a monitor at every phone call or the [Defense Dept.] at every conversation? That strikes me as a little overboard.” “I think we're going to have a much better system now that we're trying to work on it in a realistic way,” Rohrabacher said.