Mike Thompson: “we have had considerable discussion about the President's authority under this proposed legislation. The point has been…”

“we have had considerable discussion about the President's authority under this proposed legislation. The point has been made that we have a fail-safe provision--that the President can always intervene and stop some item from being exported that should not be exported. But I think if you examine the legislation, you would have to conclude that through this legislation the drafters have made it difficult for the President to intervene and step in under those circumstances even in matters that constitute a threat to the national security. If you look at section 212, which gives the President the right to set aside the foreign availability status--as you recall, under this legislation, something that heretofore has been controlled required a license. If there is a determination made by the Commerce Secretary that it is a matter of foreign availability under the criterion that they come up with, it will be decontrolled. They will be able to send it to China, Russia, or any of the other what have been tier III countries in times past. But there is a provision in here that the President can step in and exercise a set-aside.”