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Committee backs extending export-control statute of limitations to 10 years
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Summary
The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to report HR 8202, which would extend the statute of limitations for civil and criminal export-control violations from five to ten years, citing complex schemes and lengthy investigations that can take years to unravel.
The House Committee on Foreign Affairs moved HR 8202 forward after members said current five-year limits are inadequate to prosecute complex export-control schemes.
Chair (speaker 1) called up HR 8202 to amend the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 and said export-control investigations ‘‘can take years to detect, investigate, and prosecute’’ and that violators count on the clock running out. Representative McKenzie (speaker 5), the bill’s sponsor, said long-running investigations involving shell companies and layered concealment routinely exceed the existing statute.
Ranking Member Meeks (speaker 4) spoke in support while using the remarks to press for stronger committee oversight of implementation. Meeks said extending the limitations period will align export-control enforcement tools with similar penalties in other statutes and cited recent high-profile smuggling cases as justification.
The committee agreed to report the bill to the House with a favorable recommendation by voice vote. The chair announced that a roll-call vote had been requested and would be postponed.
Next steps: The committee forwarded HR 8202 to the full House for further consideration; the postponed roll call may be held later as part of the committee’s standard procedures.
