[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 100 (Thursday, July 15, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8531-S8532]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           ELECTRONIC FILING OF SHIPPERS' EXPORT DECLARATIONS

  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I have sought recognition in this special 
order to introduce legislation, on behalf of Senator Helms, the 
Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee; Senator Biden, the ranking 
Democrat; Senator Dorgan and Senator Schumer, which would provide for 
electronic filing of Shippers' Export Declarations. This legislation 
takes up a recommendation of the Commission on Weapons of Mass 
Destruction and is directed to assist in our export control to stop 
those who would acquire the material for weapons of mass destruction 
from accumulating those weapons. At the present time, there are very 
sophisticated ways of ordering the component parts of weapons of mass 
destruction which are not known and cannot be readily ascertained 
because of the voluminous paper filings.
  This legislation would call for electronic filing and would enable 
our Government to be able to regulate in a desirable fashion, without 
undue burden on exporters, materials which can be used for nuclear, 
biological, or chemical weapons. This is a recommendation of the 
Commission on Weapons of

[[Page S8532]]

Mass Destruction which filed its report yesterday with copies to the 
President and to the legislative leaders.
  This Commission was established by legislation under the Intelligence 
Authorization Act signed into law in October of 1996 when I chaired the 
Senate Intelligence Committee. This legislation was designed to deal 
with the enormous threat posed to the United States by weapons of mass 
destruction.
  When I chaired the Intelligence Committee in 1995 and 1996, I was 
aghast at the kinds of problems which I saw with respect to rogue 
nations having ballistic capabilities for the delivery of nuclear 
weapons. Since that time, it has been publicly commented that North 
Korea has nuclear capability; that they have trajectory and ballistic 
capability to reach parts of the United States; that they pose an 
enormous threat. It is well known that other rogue nations seek 
ballistic capability as well. We now find that a nuclear device can be 
carried across national borders in a suitcase. We have seen in the 
experience of the Tokyo subway catastrophe the potential for biological 
and chemical warfare.
  Those capabilities are so important that there needs to be preventive 
action to deal with them in advance of a catastrophe. Regrettably, our 
Government customarily reacts, instead of acting in anticipation.
  The Commission was formed because there are now some 96 separate 
agencies dealing with weapons of mass destruction, and the Commission 
filed in its report a recommendation urging Presidential action with 
the suggestion that the authority be concentrated in the hands of the 
Vice President. There have been jurisdictional disputes, turf battles, 
but the Vice President would have the clout to adjudicate disputes and 
to coordinate the efforts on this matter of such enormous national and 
international importance.
  The Commission recommended providing staffing, with a director to the 
National Security Council, a top level position, to preside over a 
council of representatives from the various Departments--State, Energy, 
Defense, Commerce, et cetera--with ranking officials who have been 
confirmed by the Senate.
  One of the key recommendations of the Commission on Weapons of Mass 
Destruction was to mandate electronic filing on export items which are 
in the category that they could provide component parts for weapons of 
mass destruction.
  My staff, Dobie McArthur, has already taken the lead in circulating 
this legislation among a number of Senators. We have had a favorable 
response from Senator Helms and Senator Biden, chairman and ranking 
member of the Foreign Relations Committee. There is an excellent 
opportunity that this provision could be included in a markup of 
Foreign Relations this month. As noted earlier, Senator Dorgan and 
Senator Schumer have also joined as cosponsors.
  What this legislation does is to provide for the electronic filing of 
what is known and currently required as a shipper's export declaration. 
In 1995, the Customs Service and the Census Bureau created the 
automated export system, but that system has been utilized by only 
about 10 percent of the filers.
  This legislation provides that the electronic filing requirement 
would come into operation 180 days after the Secretary of Commerce and 
the Secretary of Treasury certify that a secure Internet-based filing 
system is up and running. The requirements would be directed toward 
components which could be used in the manufacture of weapons of mass 
destruction.
  The problem is illustrated by action taken by Iraq in the acquisition 
of weapons of mass destruction. In a very sophisticated way, when Iraq 
was purchasing its component parts, instead of buying them all at one 
time and all from a single supplier, or quite a number of items from a 
single supplier a few times, the Iraqis would buy an item here, an item 
there, an item somewhere else, from a wide variety of suppliers, so it 
was impossible, without some tracking system, to find out exactly what 
Iraq was doing as they were acquiring these components for weapons of 
mass destruction.
  As we all know, there is dual use on many of these items; that is to 
say, they can be used for peaceful purposes or they can be used for 
putting together weapons of mass destruction. In this way, with a 
sophisticated system, a purchaser may acquire the ingredients to 
produce weapons of mass destruction.
  Electronic filing will put the matter all under one umbrella. Without 
undue burden on shippers, there can be a determination as to what is 
being purchased which has the potential for being turned into a nuclear 
weapon, a biological weapon, or a chemical weapon of mass destruction.
  Mr. President, how much time remains on my allotment of 15 minutes?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Six minutes 14 seconds.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I will use that time on another subject 
of currency and importance.

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