INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY COUNCIL

July 11, 200

The Honorable Robert Bennett
United State Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Bennett:

I am writing to follow-up on earlier correspondence to reaffirm the fact that ITI strongly supports the bipartisan Bennett/Reid amendment to the defense authorization bill. We urge your colleagues to support your amendment, and also to oppose any efforts to further water down what is already a compromise position for the computer industry.

The Bennett/Reid amendment would provide overdue relief from the current 180-day waiting period whenever US computer export thresholds are updated. Accordingly, this letter is to inform you and your colleagues that ITI anticipates including votes pertaining to computer exports in our annual High Tech Voting Guide. As you know, the High Tech Voting Guide is used by ITI to measure Members of Congress' support for the information technology industry and policies that ensure the success of the digital economy.

ITI is the leading association of U.S. providers of information technology products and services. ITI members had worldwide revenue of more than $633 billion in 1999 and employ an estimated 1.3 million people in the United States.

As you know, ITI has endorsed legislation introduced by Sen. Reid to shorten the Congressionally mandated waiting period to 30 days. While we strongly support our country's security objectives, there seems no rationale for treating business-level computers that are widely available on the world market as inherently more dangerous than items being removed from the nation's munitions list - an act that gives Congress just 30 calendar days to review.

Make no mistake. Computer exports are critical to the continued success of the industry and America's leadership in information technology. Computers today are improved and innovated virtually every quarter. In our view, it does not make sense to have a six-month waiting period for products that are being innovated in three-month cycles. That rapid innovation is what provides America with her valuable advantage in technology, both in the marketplace and ultimately for national security purposes - an argument put forth recently in a Defense Science Board report on this very subject.

As a good-faith compromise, ITI and the Computer Coalition for Responsible Exports (CCRE) backed an amendment to the House-passed defense authorization bill that established a 60-day waiting period and guaranteed that the counting of those days would not be tolled when Congress adjourns sine die. The House passed that amendment last month by an overwhelming vote of 415-8.

We thank you for your leadership in offering the bipartisan Bennett-Reid amendment as a companion to the House-passed compromise provision. We trust that it will pass the Senate with a similar overwhelming majority.

We have been heartened in recent weeks by the bipartisan agreement that the waiting period must be shortened. The Administration has recommended a 30-day waiting period. The House, as mentioned above, endorsed a 60-day waiting period. And Gov. George W. Bush has publicly endorsed a 60-day waiting period as well in recognition that commodity computers widely available from our foreign competitors cannot be effectively controlled.

We thank you for your strong and vocal leadership in this matter and look forward to working with you and other Senators to achieve a strong, bipartisan consensus on this and other issues critical to continuing America's technological pre-eminence.

Best regards,

/S/

Rhett B. Dawson
President