Where Industry and Security Intersect
What's New | Sitemap | Search
The Bureau of Export Administration’s budget request for FY 2001 reflects ongoing efforts to restructure export control activities for the 21st century. BXA administers and enforces laws and regulations that govern exports of dual-use commodities, technology and software from the United States and its territories and reexports of such items to third countries. BXA implements U.S. encryption policy and the antiboycott provisions of the Export Administration Act. Other BXA offices participate in U.S. government efforts to assist the independent states of the former Soviet Union, the Baltics, and nations of Central Europe in developing effective export control systems. The agency conducts extensive analysis related to the Nation’s defense industrial and technology base. Significant new agency-wide responsibilities include ensuring U.S. business compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention.
BXA is requesting $71,554,000 and 497 full-time employees (FTEs) in the FY 2001 budget. This amount is $17,701,000 and 36 FTEs above our FY 2000 appropriation, which would allow BXA to sustain its current activities and fund performance of additional required duties.
A unit-by-unit breakdown of new requests follows:
Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) Inspections and Protecting U.S. Plant Sites (23 positions; 17 FTE; and $8,500,000)
This request will enable BXA to ensure that U.S. industry complies with all treaty reporting and facility inspection requirements and that confidential business information of U.S. chemical and pharmaceutical firms is protected from unauthorized release during CWC inspections. Additional funding is imperative if the United States is to conduct the number of inspections the CWC’s international administrative agency, the Organization for the Prohibitions of Chemical Weapons, wants to conduct in U.S. chemical facilities.
Weapons of Mass Destruction Prevention/Counterterrorism/Chemical Weapons Convention (19 positions, 14 FTEs and $2,000,000)
This increase will enable Export Enforcement (EE) personnel to share with the U. S. Customs Service EE's expertise in targeting for investigation outbound shipments that might violate export control regulations. This will help Customs target inbound shipments in order to halt importation of materials that might aid terrorists.
This is a cross-cutting initiative that implements Presidential Decision Directive 62 on interagency weapons of mass destruction prevention and counter terrorism cooperative efforts. The increase will enable Export Enforcement to increase its resources for counter terrorism investigations, permitting it to target terrorist-supporting entities, conduct counter terrorism liaison with other law enforcement agencies, and hire agents trained in computer evidence recovery. Export Enforcement personnel will be able to conduct outreach at The Department of Energy’s (DOE) national laboratories to educate senior officials and scientists about export licensing requirements to prevent violations by these laboratories. Export Enforcement also will train Russian laboratory officials concerning nonproliferation export controls as a facet of the DOE Nuclear Cities initiative. The additional funding will also enable Export Enforcement to meet its enforcement responsibilities under the Chemical Weapons Convention.
7 positions; 5 FTEs; $700,000
Additional funding is needed to provide staff to support the interagency international export control cooperation and technical assistance programs that help the nations of the former Soviet Union, Central Europe, The Baltics, and other key exporting or transhipment nations to develop export control systems to prevent leakage of sensitive goods and technologies, especially those that rogue nations or terrorists could use to design, build, or deliver weapons of mass destruction. In previous years, Commerce efforts have been supported by funding from the Departments of State and Defense, which selectively fund activities to be performed by BXA. In response to Congressional desires to enlarge and intensify this type of assistance because of the benefits to U.S. national security, BXA is being requested to expand its technical assistance efforts, and both the State and Defense Departments are proposing to provide additional funding for this purpose. None of these funds, however, may be used for BXA personnel, and the existing NEC staff is fully committed at the current level of effort. Therefore, if BXA is to be able to play the expanded role it is being requested to play, it must acquire the additional staff resources this funding will support.
0 positions; 0 FTE; $3,500,000
The CIAO works with other government agencies and the private sector on issues related to protecting the nation’s critical infrastructures that deliver of essential telecommunications, energy, financial, and transportation services and perform a variety of other essential functions. The CIAO’s FY 2000 funding was reduced to $3,000,000 from the requested $6,400,000. The additional funds requested for FY 2001 will reinstate the funding not provided this year and will allow the CIAO to perform its required duties during the final year of its projected existence.
In April of 2002 the Bureau of Export Administration (BXA)
changed its name to the Bureau of Industry and Security(BIS). For historical
purposes we have not changed the references to BXA in the legacy documents
found in the Archived Press and Public Information.