[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1962 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1962

    To prohibit the export of high-performance computers to certain 
 countries until certain applicable provisions of the National Defense 
         Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1998 are fulfilled.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 26, 1999

  Mr. Hunter introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on International Relations, and in addition to the Committee 
 on Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
  Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To prohibit the export of high-performance computers to certain 
 countries until certain applicable provisions of the National Defense 
         Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1998 are fulfilled.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Supercomputer Post-shipment 
Verification Act of 1999''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Section 1213 of the National Defense Authorization Act 
        for Fiscal Year 1998 (Public Law 105-85; 111 Stat. 1934) 
        requires the Secretary of Commerce to conduct post-shipment 
        verification of each digital computer with a composite 
        theoretical performance of more than 2,000 millions of 
        theoretical operations per second (MTOPS) that is exported from 
        the United States on or after November 18, 1997, to countries 
        specified in section 1213(b) of that Act.
            (2) Section 1213(b) of that Act identified the countries 
        covered by the post-shipment verification requirement as those 
        countries listed as ``Computer Tier 3'' eligible countries in 
        section 740.7 of title 15 of the Code of Federal Regulations, 
        as in effect on June 10, 1997. Computer Tier 3 countries are 
        countries that have been identified as countries of concern for 
        national security or proliferation reasons such as Russia, the 
        People's Republic of China, India, Pakistan, and Israel.
            (3) Section 1213 of that Act also requires the Secretary of 
        Commerce to submit an annual report to congressional committees 
        on the results of post-shipment verifications required by that 
        section during the preceding year.
            (4) The Committee on Armed Services of the House of 
        Representatives received the first of these reports on January 
        7, 1999. The report identified 390 high-performance computers 
        as having been exported to Computer Tier 3 countries during the 
        period beginning on November 18, 1997, and ending on November 
        17, 1998.
            (5) The report also identified 286 supercomputer exports 
        covered by the post-shipment verification requirement for which 
        a post-shipment verification was not conducted.
            (6) The report stated that 190 of the instances where a 
        post-shipment verification was not conducted involved exports 
        to the People's Republic of China. The Secretary of Commerce 
        reported that the People's Republic of China did not allow 
        post-shipment verifications to be conducted.
            (7) Because post-shipment verifications were not conducted 
        in a number of instances, the United States Government does not 
        know if the computers in question are being used for benign 
        commercial purposes, or for purposes that benefit military or 
        proliferation promoting projects.

SEC. 3. AMENDMENT TO THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL 
              YEAR 1998.

    (a) Annual Report.--Section 1213 of the National Defense 
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1998 (Public Law 105-85; 111 Stat. 
1934) is amended by striking subsection (c) and inserting the 
following:
    ``(c) Annual Report.--The Secretary of Commerce shall submit, on 
January 1 of each year, a report to the congressional committees 
specified in section 1215 on the results of post-shipment verifications 
conducted under this section covering exports carried out during the 
preceding fiscal year. Each such report shall include a list of all the 
items subject to the post-shipment verifications that were so exported 
and, with respect to each such export, the following:
            ``(1) The destination country.
            ``(2) The date of export.
            ``(3) The intended end use and intended end user.
            ``(4) The results of the post-shipment verification.''.
    (b) Moratorium on Exports.--Section 1213 of the National Defense 
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1998 (Public Law 105-85; 111 Stat. 
1934) is further amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(e) Moratorium on Export of Supercomputers Until Post-Shipment 
Verifications Have Been Conducted.--
            ``(1) For exports prior to october 1, 1998.--Until all post 
        shipment verifications required by subsection (a) have been 
        conducted for exports carried out during the period beginning 
        on November 18, 1997, and ending on September 30, 1998, no 
        digital computers with a composite theoretical performance of 
        more than 2,000 MTOPS may be exported or reexported to a 
        country specified in subsection (f).
            ``(2) For subsequent exports.--Until all post shipment 
        verifications required by subsection (a) have been conducted 
        for exports carried out during the period addressed in each 
        report required by subsection (c), no digital computers with a 
        composite theoretical performance of more than 2,000 MTOPS may 
        be exported or reexported to a country specified in subsection 
        (f).
    ``(f) Countries Covered by Moratorium.--For the purposes of 
subsection (e), a country specified in this subsection is a country 
that has been the recipient of the export of any computer described in 
subsection (a) for which the post-shipment verification required by 
subsection (a) has not been conducted.''.

SEC. 4. REPORTS.

    (a) Report on Delinquent Post-Shipment Verifications.--When all 
post-shipment verifications are conducted with respect to a country to 
fulfill the requirements of section 1213(e) of the National Defense 
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1998, as added by section 3 of this 
Act, the Secretary of Commerce shall submit to the Committee on Armed 
Services of the Senate and the Committee on Armed Services of the House 
of Representatives a report on the results of those post-shipment 
verifications. The report shall include a list identifying all the 
items subject to the post-shipment verifications that were exported 
from the United States to that country during the applicable time 
period specified in paragraph (1) or (2) of such section 1213(e) and, 
with respect to each such export, the following:
            (1) The date of export.
            (2) The intended end use and intended end user.
            (3) The results of the post-shipment verification.
    (b) Report on Impact of Supercomputer Exports on National 
Security.--The Secretary of Defense shall submit to the Committee on 
Armed Services of the Senate and the Committee on Armed Services of the 
House of Representatives a report on the impact on national security of 
the export of digital computers with a composite theoretical 
performance of more than 2,000 MTOPS to countries listed as ``Computer 
Tier 3'' eligible countries in section 740.7 of title 15 of the Code of 
Federal Regulations, as in effect on June 10, 1997. This report shall 
be submitted not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of 
this Act. The report shall be submitted in both classified and 
unclassified form.
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