15 March 2000
(Senate committee chairmen oppose September compromise) (800) By Bruce Odessey Washington File Staff Writer Washington -- The top U.S. Department of Commerce export-control official says prospects for Congress passing a new Export Administration Act (EAA) have become less certain. Under Secretary of Commerce William Reinsch says that the bill, which would authorize export controls on advanced technology such as computers and machine tools, has substantial support in the Senate, but faces determined opposition from five Republican committee chairmen and others. The head of the Bureau of Export Administration (BXA), Reinsch made the remarks at a March 15 meeting of the President's Export Council Subcommittee on Export Administration. Since the previous EAA expired in 1994, the Clinton administration has kept the export-control system in place under an emergency law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), but that practice has been challenged in court. Attempts by Congress to rewrite the Cold War-era EAA failed throughout the 1990s because of divisions between business interests on one side and military and intelligence interests on the other. Those divisions remain today, at least among Senate Republicans, Reinsch said. Republican supporters of the bill are led by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Phil Gramm, whose committee approved the bill 20-0 in September. Reinsch said that bill represents a good balance of interests that the administration basically supports even though it dislikes some provisions. One contentious issue concerns which agency will have the final word deciding what products go on the export control list. The Commerce Department has held that authority. Republicans siding with national security interests want more authority for the State Department and, even more, the Defense Department. Some want to reverse the trend set in the Bush and Clinton administrations of removing items from the control list and relaxing other controls. According to Reinsch, Senate Democrats support the bill approved by the Banking Committee. Yet that support is slipping, he said, as Gramm attempts to negotiate language acceptable to the opponents. Industry representatives have also opposed more concessions, he said. Gramm told the Senate September 10 he thought he had achieved a deal with the five chairmen opposed with a modified bill he moved to the Senate floor for debate that day. The deal quickly collapsed, however, and Gramm withdrew the bill from consideration by the Senate, at least for a while. Reinsch said that while the Senate is in recess the week of March 12, Gramm and his staff are struggling to renegotiate a deal with the opposing chairmen in a way that will not lose the support of industry. "Whether the obstacles are too great remain to be seen," Reinsch said. He said that even if Gramm fails to reach a deal, he could still attempt to push the bill through the Senate over the opposition. Under Senate rules that would require votes from 60 of the Senate's 100 members in order to end the opponents' filibuster. One opponent, Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Fred Thompson, told the Senate he will vote against the bill even if Gramm makes more concessions. "I think we ought to be tightening and they think we ought to be loosening," Thompson said, "and never the twain shall meet." Reinsch said he expects that leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives will wait for the Senate to act before starting work on the EAA. For any bill to become law requires passage by the full House and Senate and signature by Clinton. In a related development, Reinsch's Bureau of Export Administration published in the March 10 Federal Register a regulation increasing again the threshold of computers eligible for export without an individual license. The regulation implements the policy announced by President Clinton February 1. Immediately it raised the threshold from 20,000 to 33,000 million theoretical operations per second (MTOPS) for Tier 2 countries including South Korea, the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, Slovenia, South and Central America, and most of Africa. It also raised the thresholds from 12,300 to 20,000 MTOPS for exports to civilian users in 45 or so Tier 3 countries, which include China, Russia, India, Pakistan and Israel. For military users in those countries, the threshold rises from 6,500 to 12,500 MTOPS, but not until August 14 because of a six-month lag required under law. The regulation also moves Romania from Tier 3 to Tier 2, effective June 15. Reinsch said his and other agencies are preparing to submit in April their recommendations to Clinton for the next round of increases in computer export levels, citing continued rapid technological advances in the industry. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov)