The Coalition for Security and Competitiveness, a consortium of business groups lobbying the administration on export issues, yesterday hailed a recent government report taking the nation’s arms export process to task.
According to the Government Accountability Office report released late last week, the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) is stressed because of a dramatic increase in export licenses between 2003 and 2006.
GAO recommended that the DDTC analyze how to deal with some of the systemic problems leading to the backlog–like staffing shortages and inefficiencies in procedure. Yesterday, the business coalition said the GAO report shared recommendations it made last year.
“We understand the administration has developed a series of proposed reforms, and we look forward to its release. As ever, the coalition stands ready to work with the administration and Congress to implement the full range of our March 2007 export control modernization proposals.”
The new Coalition for Security and Competitiveness includes the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Foreign Trade Council, Electronic Industries Alliance, Association for Manufacturing Technology, Information Technology Industry Council, and Coalition for Employment Through Exports (Defense Daily, March 7).
In March, the group sent a letter to the president pressing for a series of recommendations for easing export restrictions including one that pertained specifically to the DDTC. It calls for a shift in funding to the State Department organization to add 10 new officers to its current staff.
The cost, the group said, would come in at less than $5 million, “and would greatly enhance efficiency by providing more staff to process licenses, especially those critical to enhancing our capabilities for joint warfighting and interoperability,” in its recommendations from last March.