Satellites to Return to Commerce?- What a Blessing

Thanks to Clif Burns, below is a link to an article referring to Rep. Ellen Tauscher who is the Obama nominee for Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Affairs. One of her pre-hearing answers implies that she would favor returning communication satellites to Commerce would be a big boost to space researchers and universities.

Under ITAR there are so many obstacles for investigators to overcome particularly when the project involves foreign collaborators (which almost all do in a university setting). It took me 2 months to just use the Canadian exemption to transfer technical data to a Canadian company to build a prototype for one of our space research projects. And that was just for an exemption, not a license! The paperwork alone was almost not worth the effort. So if satellites return to the CCL under Commerce the process of classification and licenses would be so much smoother and efficient, and a license may not be needed at all. Indeed this would be a blessing to export compliance officers who struggle with this issue under the ITAR.

"State Nominee Favors Return of Satellite Issues to Commerce"
From the ExportLawBlog.com Posted by Clif Burns at 6:20 pm on June 11, 2009
http://www.exportlawblog.com/archives/518