Team Obama convenes major secret meeting on export controls
Top cabinet officials are meeting right now with top lawmakers behind closed doors on Capitol Hill to begin a push for major export control reform. Administration attendees for the unannounced meeting include Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, National Security Advisor Jim Jones, Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher, and former National Security Advisor ...
Top cabinet officials are meeting right now with top lawmakers behind closed doors on Capitol Hill to begin a push for major export control reform.
Administration attendees for the unannounced meeting include Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, National Security Advisor Jim Jones, Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher, and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft. The lawmakers invited include the leadership of both parties and then chairmen and ranking Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs, House and Senate Armed Services, and Senate Banking committees, according to an invitation forwarded to The Cable.
The secret meeting was organized by the State Department’s legislative affairs office and is being hosted by House Foreign Affairs chairman Howard Berman, D-CA.
"The Administration requested this briefing so Secretary Gates and other senior officials could inform key House and Senate leaders about progress on the President’s export control policy review, which the Administration announced last August," said HFA spokeswoman Lynne Weil, when contacted for comment, "The Foreign Affairs Committee has jurisdiction in the House over export control matters, and Chairman Berman is developing legislation in coordination with the White House to overhaul the U.S. export control system."
Some Senate staffers were upset by the secretive nature of the meeting, because staff was excluded and no details were made available in advance of the pow-wow. Republicans are concerned that the Obama administration may be preparing to loosen export control regulations, which they see as a dangerous concession to parts of the business sector that increases risks of technology and innovation losses to countries such as China.
Inside the meeting, administration officials might also raise their concerns about two important issues that are emerging as differences between the Obama administration and Congressional leadership. The Senate is planning to move Iran sanctions legislation whether the White House thinks it’s a good idea or not.
Also, the White House is said to be angry at lawmakers for leaking news of the impending announcement of new arms sales to Taiwan. There are rumors that Jones contacted foreign relations committee leadership offices to yesterday to complain about the leaks, but the members declined to take his calls.
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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