HR4215-119

What This Bill Does

The International Traffic in Arms Regulations Licensing Reform Act changes how the State Department handles direct-commercial-sales export license applications for defense articles and defense services. Within 90 days, the Secretary of State must develop and maintain a list of countries and end users for which expedited licensing decisions are vital to U.S. national security. The Secretary must send the initial list to the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee within 30 days after development and update it annually.

Within 30 days after publishing the list, State, in coordination with the Defense Department, must start rulemaking to establish fixed decision timelines. Applications for listed countries or end users should be approved, returned, or denied within 45 days after submission. Applications for all other countries or end users should be approved, returned, or denied within 60 days. The deadlines may be suspended for Arms Export Control Act congressional-review periods or while Defense makes technology-security or foreign-disclosure release decisions. State must report semiannually to the committees on applications from the preceding 180 days that exceeded the applicable deadline, including the articles or services, recipient country, end user, corporate entities, prior similar exports, delay justification, and anticipated decision timeline.

Who Benefits and How

U.S. defense exporters, defense manufacturers seeking Direct Commercial Sales licenses, priority allied governments, priority foreign end users, defense trade compliance advisers, and House and Senate foreign-affairs overseers benefit because the bill creates a predictable 45-day track for priority licenses, a 60-day track for other licenses, annual priority-list visibility, and reports explaining delays.

Who Bears the Burden and How

State Department defense trade licensing staff, Defense Department technology-security officials, Defense Department foreign-disclosure officials, nonpriority defense export applicants, companies with delayed license applications, House Foreign Affairs Committee staff, Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff, and State reporting offices must comply with list maintenance, rulemaking, fixed decision timelines, suspension decisions, classified or sensitive reporting, and delay explanations.

Key Provisions

• Requires State to develop a national-security priority list of countries and end users within 90 days.
• Requires State to submit the initial list to Congress within 30 days and update it annually.
• Requires rulemaking with Defense to create expedited and fixed decision timelines for direct-commercial-sales export licenses.
• Requires 45-day decisions for listed countries or end users and 60-day decisions for other applications when practicable.
• Provides deadline suspensions for Arms Export Control Act congressional-review periods and Defense technology-security decisions.
• Requires semiannual reports on applications that exceed the applicable deadline.