Zoe Lofgren: “I urge defeat of the conference report. It is defective for many reasons, as has been described by my colleagues. But I…”

“I urge defeat of the conference report. It is defective for many reasons, as has been described by my colleagues. But I want to point out the error in the provision relating to exports of computers. I think it is important to outline that no one is saying that there is not a level of sophisticated computers that should not be controlled. In fact, there should be. The problem is, from concept to concrete, we run into an error and problem in this bill. The 2000 MTOPS is not a computer that needs to be controlled. In fact, by next year the Pentium II 450 megahertz version will be, in all likelihood, 2000 MTOPS on one chip. To change the 2000 MTOPS, because obviously a Pentium II should not be controlled, it is readily available, there is a very lengthy process in the bill that involves multiagency review, and then a 180-day period for Congress to review. I would note that this is an industry where it used to be a law, that it was 18 months. We are down to 9-month product cycles. So by the time the review provision has occurred, the market will have moved further and we will never catch up. That is why I think that this is, although I am sure it is well-intentioned, I think it is out of kilter with the technology that we face, and therefore, seriously flawed.”