[Satellite TODAY Insider 04-20-12] Outdated export regulations are creating serious risks to national security and hurting American satellite businesses, said Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) in response to a joint U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of State report issued April 19.

            Under the United States’ current export laws, the president’s administration does not have authority to determine the appropriate export controls for satellites and space-related items. They are controlled as defense articles under International Trafficking in Arms Regulations (ITAR), even if they have purely civilian applications and are available commercially abroad.

            Bennet said ITAR laws put U.S. manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage in the global market while posing the threat of a continued weakening of the nation’s space industrial base to the point that it will be unable to fully meet national security needs or maintain a technological edge against foreign competitors. 

            “This report highlights a serious national security threat,” Bennet said in a statement presented to the National Space Symposium in Colorado. “Our satellite businesses continue to lose market share at an alarming rate. The report makes clear how much we have been undercutting American businesses and pushing this critical work abroad to places that don’t share our interests. In Colorado and across the country, our aerospace companies are capable of producing the best technology in the world. We need to allow the U.S. satellite industry to compete globally.”

            The joint Pentagon-State Department report, which was required under the National Defense Authorization Act of 2010, recommends that the Administration be granted authority to determine the appropriate export control status of satellites and other space-related items.

To follow up on the report, Bennet said he is drafting a bill that would give the President authority to determine the appropriate export controls of satellites and related items based on the national security and foreign policy objectives of the United States.