The Battle to Renew the EAA Begins, Again
 
February 18, 2003
 

The change in leadership in the 108th Congress has done very little to change the difficulty facing those fighting to renew the Export Administration Act (EAA), which controls the export of items with commercial and military applications. Previous attempts to renew the EAA have failed. Most recently, the 107th Congress produced three versions that only served to highlight the divisions among members. A Senate bill favored liberalization of some controls, and was supported by the Bush Administration; a version introduced by the House Armed Services Committee had as its primary purpose protection of the U.S. national security interests, and a version introduced by the House International Relations Committee aimed to effect a compromise by adding 30 amendments to the Senate bill. Not surprisingly, the session ended without final action on the issue.

Once again, there appears to be at least three competing versions on the table this year. The House International Relations Committee, which has primary jurisdiction over the issue, is considering whether to rework the regime, or to start debate with last year’s Senate version. The Chairs of the Senate Banking Committee (Senator Shelby, R-AL), the Senate Judiciary Technology, Terrorism and Government Information Subcommittee (Senator Jon Kyl, R-AZ), and the House Armed Services Committee (Rep. Hunter, R-CA) have adopted a hard-line national security stance. Finally, Senator Michael Enzi (R-WY), a Senate Banking Committee member and sponsor of last year’s bill, is working on a new compromise bill that he plans to introduce in the coming weeks. Other compromise positions are also being developed. Last year’s supporters of the Senate bill are acknowledging that they will have to accept modification of that bill.

An alternative to a complete rewrite is to adopt a piecemeal approach. Under this approach, likely action this year would include removing control of high-performance computers on the basis of “millions of theoretical operations per second” (MTOPS), a measurement the industry sees as outdated, and raising penalties for illegally shipping controlled items. Exporting industries are split over whether to take this incremental approach.

It is generally agreed that there is pressure to take some action this year. Since expiration in 1994 of the EAA, the government has relied on its emergency powers to exercise control over the export-control system. However, a major problem of operating under emergency powers is enforcement, as without a new law, violators of U.S. export-control regulations are subject to relatively minor penalties – often far less than the profits gained from illegal exports. This issue has assumed a new sense of urgency in the post-9/11 environment. The Bush Administration official in charge of export administration, Assistant Secretary James Jochum, has stated that the Administration continues to see the reauthorization of the EAA as a top priority.