[House Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
EXPORT CONTROL REFORM ACT OF 2018;
GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY REAUTHORIZATION ACT
OF 2018; GLOBAL ELECTORAL EXCHANGE ACT;
AND WOMEN'S ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND
ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT ACT OF 2018
=======================================================================
MARKUP
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
ON
H.R. 5040, H.R. 5129, H.R. 5274, and H.R. 5480
__________
APRIL 17, 2018
__________
Serial No. 115-120
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida BRAD SHERMAN, California
DANA ROHRABACHER, California GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
JOE WILSON, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
TED POE, Texas KAREN BASS, California
DARRELL E. ISSA, California WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID N. CICILLINE, Rhode Island
MO BROOKS, Alabama AMI BERA, California
PAUL COOK, California LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
RON DeSANTIS, Florida JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois
TED S. YOHO, Florida BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania
ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois DINA TITUS, Nevada
LEE M. ZELDIN, New York NORMA J. TORRES, California
DANIEL M. DONOVAN, Jr., New York BRADLEY SCOTT SCHNEIDER, Illinois
F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, Jr., THOMAS R. SUOZZI, New York
Wisconsin ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York
ANN WAGNER, Missouri TED LIEU, California
BRIAN J. MAST, Florida
FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida
BRIAN K. FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania
THOMAS A. GARRETT, Jr., Virginia
JOHN R. CURTIS, Utah
Amy Porter, Chief of Staff Thomas Sheehy, Staff Director
Jason Steinbaum, Democratic Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
MARKUP ON
H.R. 5040, To authorize the President to control the export,
reexport, and transfer of commodities, software, and technology
to protect the national security, and to promote the foreign
policy, of the United States, and for other purposes........... 2
Amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 5040 offered by
the Honorable Edward R. Royce, a Representative in Congress
from the State of California, and chairman, Committee on
Foreign Affairs.............................................. 87
Amendment to the amendment in the nature of a substitute to
H.R. 5040 offered by the Honorable Brad Sherman, a
Representative in Congress from the State of California.. 174
H.R. 5129, To reauthorize the Global Food Security Act of 2016,
and for other purposes......................................... 177
Amendment to H.R. 5129 offered by the Honorable Christopher H.
Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New
Jersey....................................................... 180
H.R. 5274, To promote international exchanges on best election
practices, cultivate more secure democratic institutions around
the world, and for other purposes.............................. 181
Amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 5274 offered by
the Honorable Joaquin Castro, a Representative in Congress
from the State of Texas...................................... 189
Amendment to the amendment in the nature of a substitute to
H.R. 5274 offered by the Honorable Dina Titus, a
Representative in Congress from the State of Nevada...... 195
H.R. 5480, To improve programs and activities relating to women's
entrepreneurship and economic empowerment that are carried out
by the United States Agency for International Development, and
for other purposes............................................. 196
Amendment to H.R. 5480 offered by the Honorable Edward R. Royce 219
APPENDIX
Markup notice.................................................... 234
Markup minutes................................................... 235
Markup summary................................................... 237
The Honorable Christopher H. Smith: Prepared statement........... 238
EXPORT CONTROL REFORM ACT OF 2018; GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY REAUTHORIZATION
ACT OF 2018; GLOBAL ELECTORAL EXCHANGE ACT; AND WOMEN'S
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT ACT OF 2018
----------
TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 2018
House of Representatives,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 o'clock a.m.,
in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Edward Royce
(chairman of the committee) presiding.
Chairman Royce. The committee will come to order.
Pursuant to notice, we meet today to mark up four measures.
They are all bipartisan. And without objection, all members may
have 5 days to submit any statements or any extraneous material
into the record.
I think everyone was notified yesterday we intend to
consider today's measures en bloc. And so, without objection,
the following items previously provided will be considered en
bloc and are considered as read: H.R. 5040, the Export Control
Reform Act, Royce Amendment 101 in the nature of a substitute,
Sherman Amendment 45.
These are also all in your packets, by the way: H.R. 5129,
the Global Food Security Reauthorization Act with Smith
Amendment 85; H.R. 5274, the Global Electoral Exchange Act with
the Castro amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 5274
and the Titus Amendment 38; and I have H.R. 5480, this is the
Women's Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act and Royce
Amendment 103.
[The information referred to follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Royce. And I now recognize myself to speak on
today's business.
So, first, we have the Export Control Reform Act of 2018.
This is a bipartisan bill that would replace the outdated
Export Administration Act of 1979, which has been in lapse for
the last quarter century. And it would replace it with a
permanent modern export control authority. So, obviously, this
step is long overdue.
Crucially, the bill closes gaps in our export controls that
could permit transfers of cutting-edge technology like
artificial intelligence and advanced semiconductors to
potential adversaries such as Beijing. It also ensures that
transfers of sensitive manufacturing knowhow, including through
joint ventures, are subject to more rigorous export controls.
This act mandates an urgent effort to identify and
appropriately control critical emerging technologies,
technologies that are not currently subject to export controls,
but which could be essential to our U.S. national security.
Together with SIFIs reforms, this bill will enable the U.S. to
remain a leader in innovation, strengthen our industrial base,
and protect technologies essential to national security.
Next, we consider the bipartisan H.R. 5480. This is the
Women's Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act. Women in
developing countries around the world face binding constraints
to entrepreneurship and economic participation. So, we have
today over 1 billion women that are left out of the formal
financial system, and that leaves them without access to
savings or credit or insurance or basic property rights.
What this legislation does is expands USAID's
microenterprise assistance authority to include support for
small and medium-sized enterprises which create four out of
every five jobs in emerging markets. When women exert greater
influence over household finances, economic outcomes for
families improve and, obviously, childhood survival rates go
up. Food security and educational attainment are increased.
This isn't just good for local communities in these
developing countries. Achieving global gender parity in
economic activity could add tens of trillions of dollars to
annual GDP growth around the planet by 2025. This helps us.
Next, we have Chairman Smith's H.R. 5129. This is the
Global Food Security Reauthorization Act of 2018. Last
Congress, we came together in a bipartisan way to enact the
Global Food Security Act. Since enactment in 2016, the Global
Food Security Strategy has helped 11 million small farmers gain
access to new technologies. It has unlocked $2.7 billion in
loans, $830 million in direct private sector investment, and it
has reduced poverty by an average of 19 percent in the focus
areas. These programs have also allowed us to reach 27 million
children under the age of 5 with vital nutrition assistance.
And we did this without increase spending. H.R. 5129 continues
this good work by extending the existing authorization for an
additional 2 years.
Finally, I want to thank Representatives Castro and Meadows
for introducing H.R. 5274. This is the Global Electoral
Exchange Act. Healthy societies depend on elections that
accurately reflect the decision of voters. The world has a
shared stake in the integrity of election mechanisms. The nuts
and bolts of how people cast their votes and how these votes
are counted free from manipulation is the subject here, and
this bill would strengthen this work by authorizing the
Secretary of State to run exchanges to better equip those who
organize and administer elections in their home countries.
And I now recognize the ranking member for his remarks.
Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much for
calling this markup. We have four good measures before us
today, and I am happy to support them all. As always, I want to
thank all of our members on both sides of the aisle for their
hard work.
Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for putting forward the
Export Control Reform Act. As you mentioned, it has been almost
four decades since the law on export controls was revised. The
old law is filled with out-of-date provisions that simply don't
reflect our current national security priorities. It also
expired in 2001.
So, for the last 17 years, the legal authority for
regulating sensitive exports has been based on emergency
authority contained in Executive orders. That is why this bill
is so essential. It updates the export control system to
reflect today's reality of the way these technologies are
developed and transferred in global trade. It provides a new
approach to help mitigate the risks of sensitive technologies
falling into the hands of our adversaries, and it reasserts the
role of Congress in addressing the important national security
priority. I am proud to be the lead Democratic cosponsor of
this legislation and I urge all members to support it.
Next, I want to turn to the Global Food Safety
Reauthorization Act. This is another great example of
bipartisan common-sense cooperation on vital foreign policy
issues. I am an original cosponsor, and I am pleased to see
this bill on the agenda.
Nearly 800 million people around the world live without the
certainty that their families will have enough to eat. Underfed
populations are less productive and more vulnerable to disease.
Without reliable access to food, it is much harder for a
country to achieve stability and prosperity. So, we have an
interest and a moral obligation in tackling this problem as
part of our foreign policy.
This bill reauthorizes the successful Global Food Security
Act which codified the Feed the Future Program. We are already
seeing some excellent results from this program, a 26 percent
drop in child stunting. Nine million more people are above the
poverty line; 1.7 million more families are living without
hunger, and $2.6 billion earned by Feed the Future farmers in
new agricultural sales. This is a great bill, and I thank the
drafters, Representative Chris Smith and Betty McCollum, for
their hard work, and encourage all my colleagues to support it.
Fighting global poverty is a critical issue that our
committee faces, and one of the most effective ways we can
improve global prosperity is to empower women throughout the
world. That brings me to the next measure for today's markup,
the Women's Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act. This
is important. It is a very important piece of legislation,
introduced by Chairman Royce and Congresswoman Frankel. It
expands U.S. development policy to empower women entrepreneurs
in developing countries.
Women and girls are powerful, and we know what happens when
that power and potentials are unleashed. Communities thrive.
Local and global economies grow. Societies prosper and become
more inclusive and equitable. If women were full participants
in the global economy, we would see an additional $28 trillion
in growth in global GDP by the year 2025.
Women in developing countries face a series of gender-
specific constraints to moving up the economic ladder,
including lack of access to financial services. Women-owned
small- and medium-sized enterprises face almost a $300 billion
credit gap. The Women's Entrepreneurship and Economic
Empowerment Act works to address that disparity by expanding
U.S. development assistance to reach those small- and medium-
sized enterprises.
This bill is a welcomed step toward improving women's
economic prospects, but there remain other barriers to women's
economic empowerment, including issues related to maternal and
reproductive health. There is a well-documented link between
improved access to contraception and women's economic
empowerment. Women who are able to plan their families are more
likely to receive an education, raise their standards of
living, and climb out of poverty. These benefits aren't limited
to a woman herself. In homes where parents have the ability to
decide the number of children they have, their children tend to
be healthier, do better in school, and grow up to earn higher
incomes.
I am pleased to be an original cosponsor of this, and I
urge all of our members to join me in supporting it. And I hope
that we can build upon the good work and address all the
barriers that women and girls face, so that they can achieve
full economic empowerment.
And lastly, I turn to the Global Electoral Exchange Act,
introduced by Representatives Castro and Meadows, which would
establish exchange programs at the State Department that focus
on strengthening the electoral mechanisms around the world. It
is in America's interest that we promote credible elections,
and having exchange programs to share best election practices
is an excellent idea. We should be doing all that we can be
doing to promote democracy.
I support this bill, along with the other measures we are
considering today, and I again thank all our members on both
sides.
And I yield back, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
Chairman Royce. Thank you.
We go now to Mr. Chris Smith, the author of the Global Food
Security Reauthorization Act.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you,
Mr. Engel, for your strong support for this as well. Both of
you are cosponsors, as is Betty McCollum, who is the principal
Democrat cosponsor, and my good friend and colleague, Karen
Bass, who is also one of the leading original sponsors as well.
Thank you.
This is bipartisan legislation that has worked and this is
the reauthorization to continue, and, hopefully, to bring
additional emphasis to some of the areas that we have missed in
the original enactment of this landmark legislation.
I would remind my colleagues that there are 800 million
hungry people in the world today. Not only do children still
die from malnutrition, we know that, because of malnutrition,
those children are subjected to other sicknesses, opportunistic
infections. Malaria takes an even more devastating toll on them
because of their malnutrition.
Feed the Future, this legislation, and the underlying
program which began in the Bush administration, was
strengthened and expanded in the Obama administration, and has
now been continued and strengthened under the leadership of
President Trump, and continues to reach out to the most
vulnerable. As you pointed out, Mr. Chairman, we have seen a
significant drop in poverty, some 19 percent, and the drop in
child stunting. And as I travel throughout the world,
particularly in Africa and places like Guatemala, which has had
a huge stunting problem, they have joined the effort to provide
nutrition to young people, especially mothers and mothers
carrying children. Stunting has dropped significantly.
And why is stunting so bad? Obviously, the impact it has on
the individual, their diminished capabilities intellectually,
and the like. If the food and nutrition is there, especially in
the first 1,000 days from conception to the second birthday,
and then, hopefully, God willing, it continues, we have
stronger, more resilient children and, then, young adults and,
then, adults to live out a life that is far more fruitful than
when they are carrying a number of sicknesses.
This authorization bill emphasizes the importance of de-
worming initiatives. Among the neglected tropical diseases,
intestinal worms account for nearly 80 percent of neglected
tropical disease prevalence, affecting close to 1 billion
people all over the world. These worms undercut our nutrition
interventions and can lead to death by malnutrition or lifelong
stunting as well. We need to combine our nutrition
interventions not only with coordinated de-worming campaigns,
but also with water sanitation and health interventions that
change people's behavior. WASH training helps ensure people
limited exposure to worms such as by washing and peeling
vegetables or something as simple as giving children shoes to
wear if they walk on worm-infected soil, so that they don't get
sick again.
Again, I will ask unanimous consent that my full statement
be made a part of the record. But this legislation I think will
save many lives. And I thank you again for bringing it to the
committee today.
Chairman Royce. We go now to Mr. David Cicilline of Rhode
Island.
Mr. Cicilline. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to you
and to the ranking member for holding this markup today of
these bipartisan measures. As always, I appreciate the way our
committee works together across the aisle in moving important
reforms and authorizations.
I am pleased to support H.R. 5129, the Global Food Security
Reauthorization Act, which will extend Feed the Future until
2021, ensuring that the United States Government remains at the
forefront of fighting global hunger by providing assistance to
millions of hungry and vulnerable people around the world in
order to build sustainable food systems, improve resilience,
expand agricultural markets, and improve nutrition for local
communities. The Feed the Future Program has had a remarkable
success, as outlined in its 2016 progress report showing
statistically-significant declines in poverty in 11 out of 17
focus countries.
I am also pleased to join with my colleagues, Congressman
Smith and Congresswoman McCollum, as well as the chair and
ranking member, as a cosponsor of this important legislation,
and I urge my colleagues to support it.
I am also pleased to support H.R. 5480, the Women's
Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act, introduced by
Chairman Royce and Congresswoman Frankel. Though the United
States already does a lot of incredible work to support the
empowerment of women and girls around the world, this
legislation would expand programs to ensure that all USAID
projects and activities are shaped by a gender analysis and
gender equality, and female empowerment is integrated
throughout the agency's program cycle.
This bill will expand USAID's microenterprise development
assistance to include small and medium enterprises,
particularly those owned, controlled, and managed by women, and
will institute requirements, so that we can track the
implementation of this bill. I strongly support these efforts
and thank my colleagues for their work on behalf of women and
girls.
And finally, I am pleased to support H.R. 5274, the Global
Electoral Exchange Act, introduced by my friend and colleague,
Congressman Castro. This smart legislation will create an
exchange program for election officials in order to exchange
best practices between the United States and other countries.
At a time when democratic systems are under attack across the
globe, this legislation will help educate election officials on
best practices for administering an election. I am also a proud
cosponsor of this legislation and urge my colleagues to support
it as well.
I thank you, again, to all of my colleagues for working on
these important pieces of legislation, and thank you again to
you, Mr. Chairman and the ranking member, for holding this
markup today.
And with that, I yield back.
Chairman Royce. We go now to Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of
Florida.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.
It has been a long time since Congress has been able to
reform some of our outdated laws. The chairman and ranking
member's Export Control Reform Act is a much-needed update to
the old Export Administration Act of 1979. And while I do
applaud this measure, as well as your efforts to reestablish
strong congressional oversight of export controls, I do wish
that we had moved away from the current rescission process. The
bill allows for a rescission of a country's designation as a
state sponsor of terror (SST) to continue to operate under the
current mechanism. This allows for the administration, any
administration, to remove a country from the SST list and only
by passing a joint resolution of disapproval can Congress block
this decision, meaning we need a veto-proof majority, very
difficult to do.
And I look back at the most recent decisions that removed
SST countries, Cuba and North Korea, and think that Congress
was really powerless to prevent these moves. We are missing an
opportunity here and are, again, allowing the administration
too much leeway. We have seen that some administrations will
bargain an SST designation for next to nothing, and we will
have little to prevent that. I am dismayed that we aren't
giving ourselves the proper oversight over SST designations,
and I hope, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member, that we can find a
way to modify this mechanism going forward.
I would also like to express my strong support for my
colleague Chris Smith's bill, the Global Food Security
Reauthorization Act. With nearly 800 million hungry people
worldwide, addressing the challenge of food insecurity is both
a moral and national security imperative. Hunger is a leading
factor driving so much of the instability and violence that we
see in the world today. And by investing in stronger food
systems, we can help develop more resilient communities that
are able to withstand these pressures.
We need proper oversight and a strategy that makes sure
USAID and its partners are fully integrated in achieving U.S.
interests. This bill ensures that strategy remains in place,
and I offer the bill my strong support. Congrats, Mr. Smith.
I also want to speak in support of my friend Joaquin
Castro's Global Electoral Exchange Act. At a time when bad
actors such as Russia have been proven to meddle in other
nations' elections, including our own, it is more important now
than ever that we do what we can to ensure the validity and
security of our electoral process. This bill is a tool that we
can use to not only advance and protect our interests by
ensuring that outside actors cannot work to manipulate election
results, but it also serves to advance our democratic ideals.
I do want to note that elections alone do not make a
democracy. We saw that last month in my native homeland of Cuba
with the sham selections. Really, there were no elections set
up by the Castro regime, and we are set to see the same fraud
taking place in Venezuela next month with Maduro's sham snap
elections. And with this farce of a transition of power set to
happen tomorrow in Cuba, this bill serves to remind us that the
people of Cuba are still denied their God-given rights. Until
there are free, fair, and transparent elections in Cuba, in
Venezuela, or anywhere in the world, we need to continue to
support the people whose rights are being denied, which is why
initiatives such as this one are so important in promoting
sound election practices around the world.
And finally, Mr. Speaker--Mr. Chairman, I elevated you or
demoted you, I am not sure--I also support your bill with
Ranking Member Engel, the Women's Entrepreneurship and Economic
Empowerment Act. Sadly, women continue to face insurmountable
barriers that deter their availability to becoming full and
equal members of society. This bill seeks to update USAID
policy to chip away at those barriers, improve women's working
environments, support their property rights, and aid them in
providing access to greater economic opportunity. It is our
responsibility to empower women, and this bill does so through
our USAID programs.
Congratulations, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member, for a
fine set of initiatives that we can all support.
Chairman Royce. Well, I thank the chairman emeritus, and I
recognize her for her longstanding support for strengthening
congressional oversight over U.S. foreign policy and for
combating terrorism.
I would make a few points on the Export Controls Reform
Act, where it does move in the direction that you want to see,
maybe not as robustly as you wanted to see it. But what it does
do is it strengthens the congressional oversight over the
delisting of a state sponsor of terrorism. And it does that
really by quadrupling the time by fourfold that a designated
country has got to refrain from sponsoring terrorism before
being delisted. So, it is no longer 6 months; it is 24 months.
I think this gives us a chance for much better evidence that a
country has truly abandoned terrorism, but it also doubles the
time that Congress has to review the proposed removal of the
country from the list. So, it goes from 45 days to 90 days, and
that improves our oversight. And it, I think, gives us much
more time to reject a removal if we find that objectionable.
So, it helps in that way as well.
But one of the changes that I think will work best for us
and the committee is that it requires that the administration
notify and brief Congress at the front end, when they initiate
a review of a designated country's potential removal from the
list. So, I think all of that puts us in a better position than
we are now, and I did want to share that with you. And I
understand your plight.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Well, thank you very much. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Chairman Royce. We go now to Lois Frankel from Florida, the
cosponsor of our Women's Entrepreneurship and Economic
Empowerment Act.
Ms. Frankel. Thank you, Mr. Royce and Mr. Engel, for your
extraordinary bipartisan leadership. And I want to thank my
colleagues for their good work on all these bills, which I
support.
I want to specifically focus my remarks on the Women's
Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act, which I am
honored to be one of the original cosponsors. The bill
recognizes that, when women around the world are educated and
have access to the tools for economic success, their
communities are safer, stronger, and more peaceful, and so is
the world.
Living in the United States where there is so much
opportunity, it is hard to comprehend the hardships and
obstacles that girls and women face in so many parts of the
world. I think of Fatime, a young girl born in Mali. At just 8
months she may be cut, subjected to general mutilation. By age
12, her father may sell her for marriage to a man she has never
met. Or Nasha, a young woman in Nigeria, desperate for an
education, who has to walk miles fearful of sexual violence or
kidnapping just to get to school. Or Camilia, a grown woman in
Pakistan who dreams of starting her own business and being able
to care for her family, but discriminatory laws prohibit her
from owning property or being able to access credit. She is
among the 1 billion women excluded from the formal financial
system.
And millions of young girls face child marriage, sexual
assault, human trafficking, genital mutilation, femicide. I
could go on. One in three suffer gender-based violence. Access
to health care and education is limited. Laws in their
countries restrict their employment, property rights, access to
credit and other financial resources.
So, it is not surprising that women and girls are the
majority of the world's poor. Now here's the thing: Because of
so many, too many cruel and unfair practices against girls and
women, the world is poorer, too. According to McKinsey Global
Institute, a leading international private sector think tank,
if we change this equation and advance women's equality, we
could add $28 trillion to the global GDP in just 7 years.
And there is an undeniable link between women's economic
success and global prosperity, and this excellent bill makes it
a U.S. development policy to reduce gender disparities related
to economic opportunity; to strive to eliminate gender-based
violence; to support women's property rights, and increase the
capability of women and girls to determine their own future.
The bill requires that 50 percent of USAID's resources for
small and medium-sized enterprises be targeted to reach
enterprises owned and managed and controlled by women. It
codifies USAID's practice of shaping policy and activities
through a gender analysis which should examine gender
differences in access to resources and opportunities, different
impacts of policy and programs on men and women, and provide
recommendations to narrow the gender gaps and improve the lives
of women and girls.
And to ensure that our development assistance is reaching
women, this legislation mandates that USAID track and measure
improvements in women's economic empowerment, including
employment, access to financial services, enterprise
development, earnings and control over income, and property and
land rights. In addition, this legislation expands the scope of
development assistance for microenterprises to micro-, small-,
and medium-sized enterprises to reflect the change in the
field.
Investing in women's empowerment is not only humane, it is
good common sense, because when women exert greater influence
over household finances, economic outcomes for families
improve, childhood survival rates increase, food security and
educational attainment also increase. Women also tend to place
a greater emphasis on household savings, which improves
families' financial resiliency. When girls and women do better,
their nations do better. Women are potent forces for peace and
prosperity. When they succeed, the world will succeed.
And I thank my colleagues for joining me in support of this
important bill.
And I yield back.
Chairman Royce. Thank you.
We now go to Joe Wilson of South Carolina.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I appreciate Chairman Ed Royce and Ranking Member Eliot
Engel for their bipartisan efforts to bring the Export Control
Reform Act before the committee. This bill helps protect
industry and commerce in the United States by preventing
technological theft while reducing the risks of other countries
misusing controlled items and technologies for nefarious
purposes.
Importantly, this bill would replace the Export
Administration Act, which lapsed in 2001. While export controls
have been maintained through emergency powers granted to the
President, this legislation would update and strengthen our
export controls to maintain the pace for modern international
and digital trade without harming trade.
Foreign investment in the United States creates economic
opportunity, but it also has created gaps in our technological
security. Currently, foreign-owned companies in the United
States often do not need a license to receive dual-use
technology normally subject to such controls when exported
abroad. This bill corrects and updates this flaw for the modern
era.
This legislation also would adapt to the advances in
technology by mandating an interagency process to identify
emerging technologies that need to be protected by export
controls, which will allow export controls to stay up-to-date.
This bill protects American technology from theft and abuse and
ensures that our export control system remains robust and
effective.
I am grateful to support and cosponsor H.R. 5040, the
Export Control Reform Act of 2018, and urge its passage.
Additionally, as a former election observer for the
International Republican Institute to Bulgaria, and as a host
for election observation by Ambassador Peter Burian of Slovakia
during the Republican primary for President, I especially
appreciate the Global Electoral Exchange Act, by Congressman
Joaquin Castro, and urge its passage.
I yield back.
Chairman Royce. We go now to the author of the Global
Electoral Exchange Act, Joaquin Castro of Texas.
Mr. Castro. Thank you, Chairman Royce and Ranking Member
Engel, for bringing these measures before us today, and for
your leadership on this committee. I want to say thank you to
all the members whose bills are before us today for your hard
work.
The bills considered today, including the Export Control
Reform Act, Global Food Security Reauthorization Act, and
Women's Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act, address
important issues in the world, and I am pleased to support all
of them.
Included in this package is a bill I authored with
Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina, before the
committee today, the Global Electoral Exchange Act, or H.R.
5274. In the last decade, we have seen democracies around the
world in retreat, including some in our own backyard. This is
in contrast to prior years. In countries around the world,
democracy activists and well-intentioned leaders strive to
create more inclusive societies, but face significant
challenges, including lack of institutional knowledge of
electoral processes.
An election is a complex endeavor and an exercise a society
undertakes together. It requires an engaged public, robust
institutions, and a transparent, technically-sound electoral
mechanism. Such an electoral mechanism must include a secret
ballot, inclusive voting systems, chain of custody, neutral
instructions to voters, and so much more of what may be
considered good electoral practices.
When these electoral mechanisms are inadequately
transparent or technically unsound, the legitimacy of an
election and its results are in question. We saw this firsthand
in Kenya and Honduras over the last year, where electoral
failure led to election violence and a questionable outcome.
The State Department and USAID already engage in excellent
work, in partnership with groups like the National Endowment
for Democracy, the National Democratic Institute, International
Republican Institute, and International Foundation for
Electoral Systems, supporting democracy worldwide.
This bill would establish exchange programs with other
countries, administered by the State Department, for
individuals involved in the conduct of elections. When we bring
folks over here to show them how we do things and send
Americans to other countries to see how elections are conducted
overseas, we can have candid conversations on how all of us can
improve these processes. These educational programs would
benefit both societies abroad keyed on democratizing and our
own States and cities right here in the United States.
I would like to thank again my coauthor, Mark Meadows. I
believe he is at an OGR hearing and can't be here right now.
But he and his staff put in a lot of work also, and I would
like to say thank you and ask for my colleagues' support on
this.
Chairman Royce. Thank you.
We go now to Mike McCaul of Texas.
Mr. McCaul. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Engel.
I want to thank you for holding today's markup, and especially
thank you and the other members of this committee for your work
to advance H.R. 5480, the Women's Entrepreneurship and Economic
Empowerment Act. And I say that as a father of four daughters.
Women make up approximately 40 percent of the world's
workforce; yet, are restricted from contributing to their
economies due to economic barriers such as access to credit and
other financial services. Due to this, less women are able to
start or grow their own businesses. Research suggests that
leveling the financial playing field for women could result in
$28 trillion to the annual GDP by 2025, and that is why I would
like to offer my strong support for this bill.
This legislation will empower women's entrepreneurship by
expanding U.S. assistance to women-owned and -managed small-
and medium-sized enterprises. I believe that a world in which
women have access to the same economic opportunities as men is
a world that will be more prosperous and more stable. So, I
encourage my colleagues to support the passage of this measure.
And I yield back.
Chairman Royce. Thank you.
We go to Dina Titus of Nevada.
Ms. Titus. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking
Member.
I, too, support all of these bills and think they are
excellent pieces of legislation, and appreciate the work that
their sponsors have done to bring them to this point.
I would like to speak specifically, though, about the
Global Electoral Exchange Act, and salute Congressmen Castro
and Meadows for introducing this bill. I am a cosponsor of it,
and I appreciate, also, the chairman including my amendment en
bloc today.
The Global Electoral Exchange Act will help promote best
election practices through a global electoral exchange program
to foster the growth of democracy around the world. As a member
of the House Democracy Partnership, which works with developing
democracies to strengthen their institutions, I can attest to
the importance of strong electoral processes in bolstering
democracy and promoting economic development.
According to the World Health Organization, roughly 15
percent of the earth's population has a disability and 80
percent of those persons live in developing countries.
Inclusion of persons with disabilities is a fundamental part of
democracy, and this must extend to the electoral process as
well. Unfortunately, barriers continue to exist around the
world that limit these folks to their full and effective
participation in elections. So, therefore, they aren't able to
enjoy aspects of life and fulfill their potential.
My amendment would ensure that the best practices shared
through this program would also include those related to
equitable access to polling place, voter education information,
and voting mechanisms for persons with disabilities. By
recognizing this need, the U.S. is continuing its role as a
leader in disability accommodation in all aspects of life here
at home and around the world.
And I thank you and yield back.
Chairman Royce. Thank you.
We go to Mr. Ted Yoho of Florida.
Mr. Yoho. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I appreciate you
bringing up these important pieces of legislation, and I
support them all.
I want to give a strong support for the Export Control
Reform Act. I support this legislation completely, and I would
like to see it in the future expand to cover other forms of
research, including biotech, including plant, animal, and
medicine. These are also vital to national security, and I look
forward to offering amendments in the Rules Committee and also
on the House Floor when this bill comes up for a vote on its
way to becoming a law.
And also, to give a shoutout for H.R. 4030, the State
Sponsors of Terrorism Review and Enhancement Act, that a lot of
the portions of that are in the Export Control Reform Act, and
I look forward to that piece of legislation coming up also.
And I yield back.
Chairman Royce. We will look forward to working with the
gentleman on biotech and some of these other considerations
that should be included.
Mr. Brad Schneider of Illinois.
Mr. Schneider. Thank you. I just want to say I am glad we
have these bills here today. I am glad to support all of them.
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Mr. Schneider.
Any further members seeking recognition?
Mr. Tom Garrett.
Mr. Garrett. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Again, I would echo the sentiments of our colleagues on
each side of the aisle. Proud of each of these four pieces of
legislation.
Very briefly and specifically, on H.R. 5480, I would
commend yourself, Ranking Member Engel, and Member Frankel.
Member Engel said--and I will adopt fully his comments--that
these actions to empower women economically will ``help
communities thrive, help economies grow, help opportunity
expand.'' I wholeheartedly agree, and I would add it will also
help reduce radicalization, expand hope, which stymies
extremist recruitment, and will foster a more tolerant and open
society across the globe. Such a good bill. In other words,
this act helps not only women across the globe, but people
everywhere. And, Mr. Chairman, I would argue it will save many
uncountable lives.
Also, on H.R. 5040, the Export Control Reform Act, I
commend the chair and ranking member on their ability to
determine sort of a glaring problem that had been delayed in
being addressed for decades. This is a good, bipartisan, and
overdue reform. Just as Mr. Yoho referenced hopes that we talk
more about biotech, et cetera, I understand this might not be
the committee of purview, but I hope that this legislation will
embolden us to address the glaring EB-5 visa situation, which
essentially were sold and allow four out of five of these to go
to Chinese, which, once they are here, allows them nearly
unlimited access to sensitive technology.
Again, I commend the ranking member, the chair, and the
committee as a whole for advancing these common-sense and good,
bipartisan initiatives.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Mr. Garrett. And I think you
raise a point there, and we should confer with Judiciary, with
Mr. Goodlatte, on that issue.
Mr. Brad Sherman of California.
Mr. Sherman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you
for working with me on an amendment to H.R. 5040, which is the
Export Control Reform Act. I think the bill is excellent. I
think the amendment makes it better.
This amendment will ensure that the Department of Commerce,
which licenses the exports of dual-use items, explicitly
gathers information and takes into consideration whether a
major export of controlled equipment or technology will have a
negative impact on the production of items that are needed for
our own national security here in the United States.
So much of export control is that we look at a particular
weapon system and say, should that country be trusted with that
weapon system? But what is just as important is that we control
the export of manufacturing equipment and technology. We export
far less than any other major country as a percentage of our
GDP. When an American firm sends technology and the ability to
produce critical items outside the United States, we could call
that as one small export, but it has a negative impact on our
national security, industrial base, and our high-tech
workforce.
Even when we are exporting this material to an ally, what
we are doing is making that ally the country that will do the
manufacturing using our technology. Well, that may not be good
for jobs and our economy, but this is not a pair of shoes. This
is not a television set. When we export jobs and industrial
base in the military sector, in the dual-use sector, we
undermine our ability to produce what our military needs,
should the case arise. Having a robust toy-making industry
might be good for the United States. Having a robust industry
in the area of weapon systems is critical for our national
security.
Not only that, but by transferring this technology and
industrial capacity, we create a circumstance where some other
country will determine whether the produce of that industry,
whether the weapon systems that are manufactured or the dual-
use items that are manufactured, will be exported to this or
that additional country. Right now, when weapon systems and
dual-use items are exported, it comes to not only the
administration of this country, but often comes to this
committee. But, if we export the manufacturing capacity, the
government of Italy or the government of Japan is not going to
be submitting reports to the United States Congress giving us
60 or 90 days to approve or disapprove of arms or dual-capacity
material export. So, I think that it is important, that we look
at the industrial base as part of our national security
infrastructure.
I want to take this moment, also, to voice my support for
the other bills that are before us. I particularly want to
associate myself with the comments of Ms. Frankel from Florida
and her excellent work on the Women's Entrepreneurship and
Economic Empowerment Act, and associate myself with Mr.
Castro's comments on the importance of the Global Electoral
Exchange Act and commend him for his work on that.
Again, Mr. Chairman, thank you for working with me on this
amendment and including it in the en bloc package, and I urge
support of the motion.
Chairman Royce. Thank you.
I think Mr. Sherman puts his finger on the heart of the
matter here, because the question is no longer can it be the
export of individual systems on dual use; it has to be the
export of the knowhow. And your point about making certain we
have re-export controls, so that if we transfer it to an ally,
they cannot transfer it, is equally applicable to the question
of making certain that the knowhow itself is not transferred,
in all the ways that we try to do that in this measure.
And as we move forward, I just wanted to thank Mr. Sherman
for his contributions to this overhaul. It has been a long time
coming, and I think our efforts here are to identify every one
of these examples from past mistakes and figure out how we
close those loopholes, especially given the new technologies
that are coming.
Do any other members seek recognition?
[No response.]
Hearing no further requests for recognition, the question
occurs on the items considered en bloc. All those in favor say
aye.
[Chorus of ayes.]
All those opposed, no.
In the opinion of the Chair, the ayes have it, and the
measures considered en bloc are agreed to.
And without objection, the measures considered en bloc are
ordered favorably reported as amended, and staff is directed to
make any technical and conforming changes. And the Chair is
authorized to seek House consideration under suspension of the
rules.
That concludes our business for today. And I want to thank
Ranking Member Engel and all of our committee members for their
contributions and their assistance with this markup today.
The committee stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 10:56 a.m., the committee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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