[SatNews] The SIA strongly endorses the introduction yesterday of H.R. 3288...

This legislation — the “Safeguarding United States Leadership and Security Act of 2011” — would reform the U.S. framework for satellite export controls. The bill would authorize the President to remove satellites and related components from the U.S. Munitions List, subject to certain restrictions and Congressional oversight. The bill was cosponsored by Representatives Howard Berman (D-CA), Donald Manzullo (R-IL), Adam Smith (D-WA), Mike Coffman (R-CO), C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger (D-MD), Rob Bishop (R-UT), Gerald Connolly (D-VA), Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM). “With H.R. 3288, Congress has the opportunity to dramatically improve the competitiveness of the U.S. satellite and space industries and ensure an innovative and thriving U.S. space industrial base,” said Patricia Cooper, the President of SIA. “SIA and the satellite industry commend the bipartisan co-sponsors of this Bill for their leadership in updating an outmoded and overly-restrictive regulation instituted more than a decade ago, which has adversely affected the U.S. space industrial base. We encourage Congress to pass H.R. 3288, both to reinforce our nation's primacy in space technology and to support American jobs and competitiveness.”

H.R. 3288 would supersede 1999 legislative provisions that required all commercial satellites, satellite components, associated technical data, and related ground equipment to be treated as “munitions” for export licensing purposes, regardless of their technical sensitivity. SIA and its members have consistently encouraged Congress to reverse this unique requirement for satellites and allow the Executive Branch to determine the appropriate export licensing policy for satellites, as it does for all other technologies.