printable versionHennessy urges Obama to overhaul export controls
The National Research Council has recommended that President-elect Barack Obama issue an executive order in January directing the government to overhaul outdated export and visa controls that harm national security and economic prosperity.
The council's ad hoc Committee on Science, Security and Prosperity, co-chaired by President John Hennessy and former U.S. National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, released a 100-page report Jan. 8 titled "Beyond 'Fortress America': National Security Controls on Science and Technology in a Globalized World."
"The national security controls that regulate access to and export of science and technology are broken," Hennessy and Scowcroft write in the preface. "As currently structured, many of these controls undermine our national and homeland security and stifle American engagement in the global economy, and in science and technology. Fixing these controls does not mean putting an end to them, but implementing reforms based on the realities of the risks and opportunities of today's threats to the nation."
Speaking last week during a press conference at the National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, D.C., Hennessy said certain technologies, such as nuclear weapons materials and know-how, need to remain classified and protected from export.
"But there are many other technologies which are broadly available outside the United States that need to be accessible," he said.
The 20-member committee, which recommended specific provisions for the executive order, said decisions at the presidential level are required "to bring bureaucratic coherence to the network of national security rules and regulations that now spans eight agencies of the federal government."
The report says the recommendations are the first steps in a process that will eventually require legislative reform.
The report says many U.S. export and visa controls were developed during the Cold War to prevent the transfer of technological and scientific advances to enemies. They were designed for a world that no longer exists and are unsuitable for dealing with today's adversaries.
"Our export controls retard both the United States and its allies from sharing access to military technology, and handicap American business from competing globally," the report says. "Our visa controls have made it more difficult or less attractive for talented foreign professionals to come and learn what is great about this country, or to stay and help grow the American economy."
The current system of export controls and visa regulations uses a series of lists to inform the licensing decisions of the departments of State and Commerce, including the U.S. Munitions List and the Commerce Control List. Items are regularly added to the lists but rarely taken off, the report says.
Due to restrictions on the transfer of military technology, current export controls slow maintenance of military equipment, discourage foreign defense contractors from purchasing U.S. equipment and hamper international trade that could provide valuable information on the technical capabilities of foreign militaries, the report says.
In business, U.S. restrictions provide a road map for foreign competitors, highlighting the specific technologies and products in which other countries should invest research dollars.
Visa controls and "deemed export controls," which restrict the transfer of dual-use technology or source code to foreign nationals within the United States, have made U.S. laboratories and universities less attractive to foreign researchers and have helped drive knowledge-intensive jobs overseas.
Significant changes are needed to create a system that is protective of both national security and economic prosperity, the report says.
To ensure that the United States has access to the most talented scientists, the visa application process should incorporate skills-based preferential processing and should be streamlined so that legitimate foreign researchers and students have an easier time entering the United States.
Student visas should be extended so that recent graduates have time to find work with U.S.-based employers, and qualified American scientists should be allowed to vouch for the technical credibility and legitimacy of visa applicants in their field to aid consular officials and to expedite the application process.
Rather than abandoning all export controls on goods and technologies, the report recommends retaining the controls that work and eliminating those that do not. There should be specific principles to determine which goods or technologies are placed on the export control lists, and attempts to regulate the export of dual-use items should be cautious, with the burden of proof placed on those attempting to restrict access.
The report also recommends the creation of an economic-competitiveness exemption that would eliminate export controls on dual-use technologies legally available on the global open market. A sunset rule should be put in place so that items on the export control lists are removed after a specified amount of time unless a justification is presented for maintaining their restriction.
The report recommends the creation of two new entities to make the export control process run more smoothly and to resolve disputes when they occur:
