WASHINGTON-The shift of satellite export jurisdiction from the Commerce Department to the State Department, and the resulting loss of U.S. business, has triggered a legislative backlash that could return oversight to Commerce.
The fallout from GOP-led legislation in 1998 to transfer satellite export jurisdiction from the pro-trade Commerce Department to the security-conscious State Department has been a source of embarrassment for Republicans in an election year when both major political parties are scrambling to woo the high-tech industry.
Indeed, the push to restore satellite export oversight to the Commerce Department is led by Rep. Sam Gejdenson (D-Conn.), ranking minority member of the House International Relations Committee.
Late last month, Reps. Gejdenson and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) won approval for an amendment to a draft bill that would waive pre-notification requirements for satellite exports to NATO countries, the Russian Federation and the Ukraine.
“Congress has recognized that shifting satellite licensing from the Commerce Department to the State Department … may have cost American companies nearly 40 percent of the commercial satellite market,” said John Douglass, president of the Aerospace Industries Association.
Overseas satellite sales dropped from $1.06 billion in 1998 to $637 million in 1999, according to the Commerce Department.
In May, Gejdenson led a bipartisan effort in introducing legislation to transfer commercial satellite licensing to the Commerce Department. The bill includes special safeguards for satellite exports to China.
“The export licensing process at the State Department is slow and cumbersome by design, to allow the U.S. government ample time to carefully scrutinize weapon licenses,” Gejdenson said at the time. “However, communications satellites are not weapons and they should not be treated as such.”
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in April announced satellite licensing reforms, but they fall short of streamlined procedures that Commerce employed before losing jurisdiction.
The satellite phone industry can use all the help it can get. Iridium L.L.C. has gone belly up, and two other heavily capitalized start-ups-Globalstar L.P. and ICO Global Communications-are struggling financially.
Satellite export licensing has been a political football during Bill Clinton’s tenure as president. Before Clinton was elected in 1992, satellite export licensing was the province of the State Department. That responsibility was moved to the Commerce Department by Clinton, who embarked on an aggressive campaign to leverage U.S. high-technology expertise by expanding global trade.
The policy was in keeping with Clinton’s pledge as a New Democrat to promote U.S. business interests here and abroad, and Republicans did not oppose it at the time.
But that changed. Subsequent claims of satellite technology transfers to China and Russia and allegations of illegal Chinese-government campaign contributions to the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign became an issue GOP lawmakers found they could use against Clinton.
