Sen. Phil Gramm, chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, congratulated the House of Representatives for its vote today to reauthorize the Export Administration Act of 1979. A similar vote was taken by the Senate on Oct. 11.

"This was an extremely important step that will restore legal certainty to our export regime and provide significant penalties for lawbreakers who would compromise national security by selling our high technology to our enemies," Gramm said.

Since the Export Administration Act lapsed in 1994, export controls for national security and foreign policy reasons have been administered by presidential executive order under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Penalties for export-control violations are lower under IEEPA than under the Export Administration Act. More recently, court decisions have questioned whether IEEPA provides adequate authority to protect trade secrets and other information provided by companies seeking to abide by the export control regime.

"As the Senate Banking Committee recognized last year, the U.S. export regime is sadly outdated and wholly inadequate either for our security or for our economic needs," Gramm said. "The extension of the original Export Administration Act – for the first time in six years – will give us the opportunity we need to enact comprehensive reform of the U.S. export control system."

The reauthorization of the 1979 Export Administration Act, sponsored in the Senate by Gramm and Sen. Mike Enzi, chairman of the International Trade and Finance Subcommittee, will be effective through Aug. 20, 2001.