Export control reform faces difficulty in balancing business and national security concerns,...

get in the way of our production and export opportunities,” she said last week at a meeting of the President’s Export Council Subcommittee on Export Administration. The Bureau of Industry and Security has seven proposed rules awaiting approval from the Office of Management and Budget, said Eric Hirschhorn, BIS undersecretary for industry and security. The interagency review process for the rules is done, but OMB has other agencies’ rules to review as well, he said. BIS hopes to have the unified USXPORTS IT platform in initial operability for the State Department and the Commerce Department sometime this fall, Hirschhorn said. The first required notification to Congress of movement of items from the U.S. munitions list (USML) to the commerce control list will hopefully occur this fall, but depends in part on how quickly the review of the specially designed definition progresses, he said. BIS also continues pushing to restore presidential authority to determine export controls on satellites, currently controlled on the USML per statutory mandate, but the House legislation to accomplish this goal still includes provisions that could “delay or cripple” the Export Control Reform initiative, Hirschhorn said. This year, the House passed the FY13 National Defense Authorization bill, which includes a provision that reduces the cost for U.S. manufacturers to export satellites and components (CD May 21 p3). BIS is pushing for constructive changes to these provisions before the national defense authorization bill, which contains the relevant provisions, reaches President Barack Obama’s desk, which will probably be late in this calendar year, Hirschhorn said.