Akerman LLP added two partners to its ranks, with Matthew Goldstein joining the Washington, D.C.-based Government Affairs and Public Policy practice, and Andrew Dominguez joining the International Litigation and Arbitration practice in Miami, the firm announced.
The State Department on Oct. 21 completed an interagency review for a final rule to amend the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. The rule would make amendments to “Supplement No. 1 to part 126 in Support of Allies.” The rule was sent for interagency review Sept. 17.
The State Department on Oct. 18 completed an interagency review for a proposed rule that would amend the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to expand the definition of activities that are not exports, reexports, retransfers or temporary imports. The rule was sent for interagency review Oct. 6.
The Satellite Industry Association recommends that the National Space Council make regulatory changes to the U.S.'s commercial remote sensing rules and its export control regime for radio frequency (RF) remote sensing satellites and data. In a white paper Oct. 19, SIA said commercial remote sensing rules should change to reflect emerging applications such as RF remote sensing and the use of hyperspectral and short-waved infrared remote sensing. It said the "Fundamental Goal" for language in the national security policy directive adopted in 2003 should be updated to include economic leadership and commercial space innovation. In a separate paper, the industry group said there should be an interagency review of existing International Trafficking in Arms Regulations rules and "a more pragmatic policy and licensing approach" to ITAR, rather than the assumption that all RF remote sensing satellite products for all users and use cases fall under the State Department rules. It said an alternative could be putting RF remote sensing with other space systems without ITAR controls.
The State Department is seeking public comments on four information collections overseen by the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. One deals with approval requests for its manufacturing license agreements, technical assistance agreements and other agreements; another involves the maintenance of records by DDTC registrants; a third involves the annual brokering report; and the last relates to the agency’s “Brokering Prior Approval” license. Comments are due Dec. 19.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is working on a range of technology improvements for its website and applications, including a new Part 130 decision tool and a voluntary disclosure application, said Frances Moore, DDTC’s deputy chief information officer. The agency also is working to revamp its website and is coordinating with the Bureau of Industry and Security on a new system to more efficiently share data.
The State Department announced penalties on one person and three entities and their subsidiaries for illegal transfers under the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act. The agency in a notice said the parties transferred items subject to multilateral control lists that contribute to weapons proliferation or missile production. The State Department barred them from making certain purchases of items controlled on the U.S. Munitions List and by the Arms Export Control Act and will suspend any current export licenses used by the entities. The agency also will bar them from receiving new export licenses for any goods subject to the Export Administration Regulations. The restrictions will remain in place for two years from the Oct. 3 effective date.
A federal government payment website, Pay.gov, will conduct a “Disaster Recovery Exercise” 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. EDT Oct. 15 and may be unavailable to users during that time, the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls said. DDTC said the outage will affect users paying registration fees during that window. Questions or concerns should be directed to Pay.gov customer support at (800) 624-1373 or pay.gov.clev@clev.frb.org.
The State Department on Oct. 6 sent an interim final rule for interagency review that proposes to amend the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to expand the definition of activities that are not exports, reexports, retransfers or temporary imports. The rule will propose to amend the ITAR by “specifying two additional activities.”
The State Department completed another round of interagency review for a final rule that would amend the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. The rule -- which was initially sent for review Sept. 6 (see 2209120001) and completed Sept. 14 (see 2209150009) with a change -- was again sent for review and completed on Oct. 4 after changes were made to the rule. The rulemaking would make revisions to “prohibited exports, imports, and sales to or from certain countries.”