House lawmakers are mulling legislation that would increase the civil and criminal penalties for violations of the Arms Export Control Act, among other things.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee recently approved a bill, introduced by Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.), that would increase the penalties for violations of the Arms Export Control Act to conform with the higher penalties under the International Emergency Economic Powers Enhancement Act for violations of other export laws.

Section 831 of H.R. 2410, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011, would amend the AECA to provide for a civil penalty of up to $250,000 per violation or twice the value of the export involved, whichever is greater. The bill would also provide for criminal penalties of up to $1,000,000, imprisonment of up to 20 years, or both.

Clif Burns, a lawyer with Bryan Cave who blogs about export controls law, notes that the bill "mostly repeats some things that have been kicking around in other reform legislation but never passed."

Since Congress already increased the criminal penalties for violation of Commerce's export rules, Burns says the increased penalties are "likely to happen at some point."

"The bill is an indication of what Congress is thinking about," says Burns. "I don't think it will make it past the floor, but the language might show up elsewhere."

In addition to the higher penalties, Burns notes that the bill would set processing time goals of no more than 60 days for licenses and commodity jurisdiction requests and would require CJ determinations to be posted on the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls Website. CJ requests are used to determine whether an item or service is subject to the export licensing authority of the Department of Commerce or the Department of State. Burns says that while some requests receive responses in less than 60 days, "others have been pending for more than seven years."

Section 826 would permit the President to remove "satellites and related components" from the United States Munitions List, but Burns says the intent and breadth of an exception that would apply to China is unclear.