House Panel Advances Bills on Gun Export Controls, Entity List
The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved several export control and sanction bills July 10, including a resolution that would block the Bureau of Industry and Security’s new interim final rule restricting firearms exports (see 2406100048).
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Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., who offered the resolution, said the firearms rule is having a “devastating effect” on U.S. manufacturers and exporters of guns and ammunition, including by forcing a firearms small business in his state to close recently. BIS unveiled the export restrictions in April, saying they are intended to reduce the risk that firearms end up in the hands of criminals or terrorists (see 2404260054). Green’s resolution faces an uphill battle in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
The committee also endorsed legislation to allow the Defense, Energy and State departments to propose additions to the Commerce Department’s Entity List (see 2402010080). The expansion would give more national security-minded agencies a “fair say in these decisions," said committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who introduced the bill with Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo.
The committee also approved a measure stating it's no longer U.S. policy that the Missile Technology Control Regime’s presumption of denial applies to NATO and Five Eyes countries. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., said his proposal would ensure the MTCR does not impede joint development of advanced missile technology under Pillar II of the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) security partnership. Committee ranking member Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., opposed the bill, saying it could undercut global nonproliferation efforts and is unnecessary for AUKUS.
Other bills backed by the committee would: sanction the Popular Resistance Committees, which participated in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel; sanction foreign persons engaged in piracy (see 2407080017); sanction officials who undermine democracy in the Republic of Georgia; and require the Commerce Department to identify foreign adversary entities that use high-tech American intellectual property without a license (see 2407020066). Meeks said the IP bill would be difficult to implement as written but that he would be willing to work with its sponsor, Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., to address his concerns.