House Foreign Affairs Committee Eyes State Dept. Bill After Summer Break
The House Foreign Affairs Committee plans to take up a State Department authorization bill “sometime after” the August congressional recess, committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., said Jan. 23.
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The legislation could include input from a new task force that will examine ways to improve how the government handles foreign military sales and export controls (see 2501220086), Mast told Export Compliance Daily. Lawmakers have long complained that the FMS process is too slow and opaque, sometimes forcing countries to go elsewhere to buy weapons.
Mast, who became committee chairman in early January, has said one of his priorities will be to end Congress’ practice in recent years of slipping the annual State Department authorization bill into another piece of legislation, with no deliberation by the Foreign Affairs Committee (see 2412110012).