Sen. Menendez Remains Opposed to Transfer of Gun Export Controls, Considering CRA Push

The Commerce Department is slated to take over export control responsibility from the State Department, which would mean Congress would no longer be notified when there are sales of more than $1 million to foreign governments. The final rule is ready for implementation, but Congress could stop it if there's a joint resolution under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to reverse agency rules.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who has opposed the transfer, said he does not have the power alone to stop the rule. “We'll have to look at the Congressional Review Act as an opportunity to disapprove, and we'll have to see if the support would be there for it," he told International Trade Today in a hallway interview Nov. 13. "But I think that when we start moving away from the type of oversight that the Foreign Relations Committee has over arms controls, and just basically have Commerce have a freewheeling set of sales, that's a problem."

In order for a resolution to get consideration in the Senate, either the Foreign Relations Committee chairman would have to get behind it, or Menendez would have to recruit 29 other Senators to call for the resolution to come to the floor after a 20-day waiting period. If he succeeded, however, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., could not block the vote, and it would only need 51 votes to pass, not the usual 60 votes that Senate bills require.

U.S. gun manufacturers have advocated for the change, which they believe will increase exports (see 1911080039). The House of Representatives passed a bill earlier this year that would not allow the change in responsibility from the State Department to the Commerce Department, but the Senate did not follow suit. Even if both chambers disapproved of the rule, the president could veto their resolution. Then they would need two-thirds of both chambers to override that veto.