(Washington,
D.C.) – On Wednesday, U.S. Senator’s Patty Murray (D-WA) and Kit Bond (R-MO)
hosted the second Aerospace Caucus Luncheon to serve as a forum to share ideas
and promote consensus on the best policies to maintain and expand the American
aerospace industry. Senator Murray expressed strong support for improving the
existing export control system, and highlighted Washington state ties to the
aerospace industry and trade.
“Washington
state is the most trade dependent state in the country and our workers and
businesses rely heavily on the aerospace industry,” said Senator Patty
Murray. “I have spoken with so many aerospace workers who have lost
their jobs over the last four years, and I have heard directly from small
business owners across the state about how export controls severely limit their
business opportunities. The current system is too restrictive and has
contributed to a significant loss of sales to foreign based companies, which is
exactly why the U.S. needs to take smart steps to help our companies be better
positioned to export their products and create jobs here at home.”
Following
Senator Murray’s remarks, National Security Adviser General James Jones
announced the creation of a new and independent licensing agency that will
unite all export activities under a board of directors reporting directly to
the president, as a part of the Obama administration’s efforts to overhaul the
current export control system. Under the current system, licenses are
jointly issued to companies that want to export items for commercial and
military purposes by the U.S. Departments of State and Commerce.
“The
Administration supports the creation of an independent entity, governed by a
Board of Directors comprised of the Cabinet officials of the current
departments with export control responsibilities, which reports to the
President,” said General Jones at the luncheon. “We hope to have a
fundamentally new system, a system defined by flexibility, transparency, and
predictability, and which improves the ability of exporters to comply and for
the government to enforce. We are identifying practices, business processes,
and definitions, with the aim of making changes that will harmonize how we do
business and remove inherent discrepancies and contradictions between the
current systems”
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