Senate Republicans Blast Possible New Rule on Gun Exports
New regulations that the Commerce Department is considering for commercial gun export licenses would “devastate” the American firearms industry by imposing overly burdensome requirements, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and 11 other Republican senators told the agency.
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“The proposed regulations, including the requirement that a business provide the Commerce Department with the information of every single potential end-user of their products prior to a license being granted, create an impossibly high burden for manufacturers to meet,” the senators wrote in a Feb. 21 letter to Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Alan Estevez. “There is a real concern that these regulations are being crafted in a manner to deliberately make compliance impossible.”
The lawmakers also said they're worried that Commerce will implement the new regulations “without proper congressional oversight and industry input.” They noted that the proposed rule hasn't been formally announced and that the public became aware of it only through leaked documents (see 2402070013 and 2312260039).
The letter also questions why a 90-day pause in issuing new commercial firearms export licenses that was supposed to expire in late January remains in effect. “We are concerned that the rationale behind the continued imposition of the pause is to afford the department additional time to promulgate” the new rule, the senators wrote.
The letter criticizes the pause itself, saying it has not improved national security but could cost American businesses hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue. BIS announced the pause on Oct. 27, saying it would allow Commerce to “more effectively assess and mitigate risk of firearms being diverted to entities or activities that promote regional instability, violate human rights, or fuel criminal activities” (see 2310270068).
Besides Lee, the letter was signed by Republican Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, Mike Braun of Indiana, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Steve Daines of Montana, Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, James Risch of Idaho and Rick Scott of Florida.
Commerce didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.