WASHINGTON – Assistant Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced today that he will offer an amendment to the Export Administration Act reauthorization bill (S. 1712) to shorten the congressional review period for the sale of high performance computers by American high-tech companies. The bipartisan amendment is also being cosponsored by Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), Senators Robert Bennett (R-UT), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Patty Murray (D-WA) and John Kerry (D-MA).

Under current law, American exporters of high-performance computers are subject to a six-month (180 days) congressional review period. The Reid amendment will reduce the congressional review period to 30 days. S. 1712 sets the review period at 60 days.

"This amendment will help ensure that U.S. high tech firms can compete on a level playing field with their global counterparts. High performance computers are widely available in the world market, so it makes little sense to subject U.S. firms to a burdensome and discriminatory waiting period," said Senator Reid.

As Chairman of the Senate Democratic High-Tech Working Group, Senator Reid has worked to shorten the review period and to revise regulations governing encryption software. Reid's amendment comes on the heels of a recent announcement by the Clinton Administration to make modest changes to the export regulations. Under the plan, the Administration maintains the current two-level system for export of high performance computers to civilian and military end users, but raises the limits on the performance power.

"The Clinton Administration's recent decision to relax export controls on high performance computers was a step in the right direction, but the development of more powerful microprocessors will make these regulations obsolete. We must have a fundamental shift in export policy if we expect American companies to remain competitive in the world market," said Reid.