[FYI] COMMERCE DEPT.'S REINSCH ON EXPORT CONTROL LEGISLATION

[Horns@t-online.de (Axel H. Horns)]

http://jya.com/war030399.htm

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4 March 1999
Source: 

USIS Washington File
_________________________________ 

03 March 1999 

COMMERCE DEPT.'S REINSCH ON EXPORT CONTROL LEGISLATION 

(Long lapse in law hurts enforcement, he says)  (2730)

Washington -- Under Secretary of Commerce William Reinsch says
short-term extension of the Cold War-era Export Administration Act
(EAA), which lapsed nearly five years ago, would be better than
continuing to operate export controls without direct congressional
authorization, but not much better.

Reinsch made the statements in March 3 testimony for a U.S. House of
Representatives International Relations subcommittee.

EAA reauthorization has posed trouble for Congress for a decade.
Divided by business and security interests, Congress managed only to
pass a few short-term extensions of the 1979 act through August 1994,
when it finally lapsed.

Since then the Clinton administration has kept export controls in
force under another law, the International Emergency Economic Powers
Act (IEEPA), but Reinsch said doing so faces growing legal and
practical challenges, including penalties for violations that are too
low.

The administration proposed a revised EAA in 1994, and the House
considered its own proposal in 1996, but no bill passed Congress.
Reinsch said that while administration officials had specific
objections to the House bill, they could support most of it.

"Our preference is that you take up reauthorization of an EAA that
would build on the consensus already achieved," Reinsch said.

Because of the difficulty expected to surround such a bill again,
however, he said, the administration would consider extension of the
1979 EAA to deal with short-term problems, especially in enforcement.

[...]

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