Political Quotes

“This amendment has been a long time in coming. Congress overreacted back in 1998 to move export licensing decisions for commercial communication satellites (COMSATs) to the highly restrictive munitions list. As a result, worldwide market share for U.S.-made commercial communications satellites dropped from 75 percent to an average of just 44 percent over the past 13 years. As a result, the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) estimated last January that U.S. manufacturers lost $21 billion in satellite revenue from 1999 to 2009, costing about 9,000 direct jobs annually because of treating exports of COMSATs, along with satellite parts and components, like military weaponry. In addition, this Congressional overreaction harmed our national security because it hurt our U.S. space industrial base, particularly component manufacturers. These firms became less globally competitive because stringent export controls provide a perverse incentive to foreign satellite makers to design out U.S. parts. Thus, as these U.S. component makers struggle to sell their product in the commercial marketplace, they become less able to meet the national security needs of the U.S. government. A 2011 analysis of the U.S. space industrial base by the respected Tauri Group documented that out of 135 U.S. space hardware manufacturers, 28 technology areas are at some risk of disappearing from our shores because of limited suppliers.…”