Message to the Congress -- Colombia Traffickers

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:

Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C. 1622(d), provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, within 90 days prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. In accordance with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the national emergency with respect to significant narcotics traffickers centered in Colombia declared in Executive Order 12978 of October 21, 1995, is to continue in effect beyond October 21, 2013.

The circumstances that led to the declaration on October 21, 1995, of a national emergency have not been resolved. The actions of significant narcotics traffickers centered in Colombia continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and to cause an extreme level of violence, corruption, and harm in the United States and abroad. For these reasons, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 12978 with respect to significant narcotics traffickers centered in Colombia.

BARACK OBAMA

THE WHITE HOUSE,
October 16, 2013.

Statement by the Press Secretary on the Visit of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq

On Friday, November 1, President Obama will host Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the White House.  The visit will highlight the importance of the U.S.-Iraq relationship under the U.S.-Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement (SFA).  The President looks forward to discussing with Prime Minister Maliki efforts to enhance cooperation in the fields covered under the SFA, and to coordinating on a range of regional issues.

Fact Sheet: Announcing the Revised U.S. Export Control System

Today, the Administration reached the most significant milestone of the President’s Export Control Reform Initiative (ECR) with the nation’s first set of revised export control lists going into effect.  With these revisions in place, the Administration has successfully implemented the first parts of its new export control system in all four areas of the current export control system:  what we control, how we control it, and how we enforce and manage our controls. 

The changes to the U.S. Munitions List (USML) and the Commerce Control List (CCL) that become effective today pertain to controls on aircraft and gas turbine engines.  Taken together, these two control categories account for the largest volume of U.S. export licenses and represent the highest percentage of licensed exports from 43 states, with licensed shipments of almost $21 billion a year.  These two categories also account for the largest amount (75 percent) of USML export licenses approved solely for parts and components.

These changes are being made to address the increasing challenges posed by an outmoded export control system created during the Cold War.  This system did not prioritize controls, for example between end-items like an F-18 and its parts and components, resulting in a disproportionate focus on the least sensitive items such as nuts, bolts and screws instead of the most sensitive items.  These controls strained government resources by attempting to protect all items in a control category equally, and harmed interoperability with U.S. allies and partners by causing delays in exports of items that support allies and partners operating alongside U.S. forces.  These controls also have harmed the U.S. defense industrial base, because foreign manufacturers have increasingly sourced non-sensitive parts and components from outside the United States to avoid the licensing requirements of the U.S. munitions export control system.  The new controls effective today address these problems, while ensuring that the U.S. government’s process of reviewing export license applications will continue to consider the full spectrum of U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, from nonproliferation to human rights.
 

New Control Lists

The controls effective today are no longer overly broad generic controls that capture everything, but instead are detailed, enumerated lists that impose controls based on the sensitivity of the item and the destination.  For example, our most sensitive items – such as bombers, fighters, unmanned aerial vehicles, and their key subsystems, parts, and components – remain on the USML, while less sensitive items, mostly parts and components like cockpit gauges, steel brake wear pads and fuel filters, are now subject to the more flexible authorities of the CCL.  
 

New Licensing Policies

Items remaining on the USML continue to be subject to our most stringent controls.  Manufacturers, exporters, and brokers of USML-controlled items are subject to annual registration requirements and fees, export licenses are approved only with a valid purchase order provided by the exporter, and comparable requirements for all domestic- and foreign-made items that incorporate USML–items remain in place.

For the less sensitive items now on the CCL, such requirements are eliminated.  In addition, many of the items moved to the CCL are now eligible for export without specific licenses if intended for the ultimate end-use by the governments of 36 U.S. allies and partners (although such exports carry with them additional compliance requirements).  These changes will largely resolve the interoperability problem with these U.S. allies and partners.  They also will facilitate procurement of these items from U.S. firms, supporting our defense industrial base and helping to sustain production and employment in the United States to meet future U.S. needs.  All of the items that moved from the USML to the CCL, even those which are now eligible for export without specific licenses, remain controlled.  In addition, all these items on either list remain subject to the same U.S. arms embargoes.  Military items for aircraft and gas turbine engines that were moved to the CCL in the 1990s are now subject to the same arms embargoes as items controlled on the USML, which means we have tightened controls to those embargoed destinations. 
 

Enhanced Export Enforcement

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations will continue their robust enforcement of U.S. export controls for items on both control lists.  As of today, the easing of export licensing requirements for many items moved to the CCL is balanced by the increased oversight from Department of Commerce Export Enforcement Special Agents and analysts dedicated exclusively to export enforcement for items on the CCL.  Enhanced export enforcement is a critical element of ECR, and includes the enhanced coordination of all export enforcement efforts by the multi-departmental Export Enforcement Coordination Center, which formally began operation in March 2012, and is administered by DHS.
 

New Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure

In July 2013 the Department of State successfully transferred its export licensing database and software platform to the one used by the Department of Defense (“USXports”), and the Department of Commerce is scheduled to begin using USXports in early 2014.  As a result, the three largest departments involved in export licensing will be on a single IT system, enabling them to better administer the licensing process and ensure that decisions made by the different departments are fully informed.

The changes effective today are the result of more than four years of extensive collaboration among the Administration, Congress, non-governmental organizations, and private industry.  Additional control list changes will be implemented throughout the remainder of 2013 and 2014, as the United States adopts a new export control system designed to address the current and anticipated national security and foreign policy challenges of the 21^st century.  To follow developments in the President’s Export Control Reform Initiative, visit www.export.gov/ecr/.

Readout of the President's Call with Leader Pelosi

This afternoon the President spoke with Leader Pelosi over the phone. The President and Leader Pelosi discussed the way forward on the pressing fiscal matters facing Congress today. They reinforced that there must be a clean debt limit increase that allows us to pay the bills we have incurred and avoid default, and that the House needs to pass the clean continuing resolution to open up the government and end the shutdown that is hurting middle class families and businesses across the country. The President and the Leader also discussed their willingness, once the debt limit is raised and the government reopened, to negotiate on a longer term budget solution that will grow our economy and create jobs. The President also thanked Leader Pelosi for her efforts to move forward with a clean CR and a one-year clean debt limit increase that would prevent a first-ever default of our nation's credit.