FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Rep. Green Protects Small Businesses, 2nd Amendment with New Bill
Continues fight against the Biden administration's devastating assault on firearms exporters
WASHINGTON—During Small Business Week, Rep. Mark Green introduced the Stop the Bureaucratic Ineptitude Shuttering Respectable and Upstanding Lawful Exporters Act (Stop the BIS RULE Act). The legislation comes after the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) instituted a 90-day pause, which lasted for over 180 days, on the issuance of new export licenses involving certain firearms, related components, and ammunition.
Green said, "If BIS doesn't change course, Americans will continue to lose their livelihoods while enriching black market gun dealers. From the small businesses that sell firearms, ammunition, and components, to the manufacturers and shippers that make and deliver them, the rule will only further devastate businesses harmed by the pause. Making these changes permanent only weakens the rights of law-abiding citizens while giving criminal actors a monopoly of force.
This rule further demonstrates the Biden administration's antipathy for the Second Amendment. The last thing struggling small businesses need is to be put out of business by the Biden administration, which is exactly what this reckless pause is doing.
It is shocking that the Biden administration would release this rule during Small Business Week. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the economic impact of this rule on U.S. manufacturers and exporters will be more than $250 million. These are real people, with real families to support—this is shameful.
This policy is intentionally vague, giving the Biden administration the cover it needs to stonewall license applications. Worst of all, by adding 'crime control' as an additional licensing policy, the Biden administration can punish law-abiding American firearm exporters for crimes committed in other countries. Holding American businesses liable for these crimes—rather than the criminals—is an absurd policy, especially when they are selling to legitimate gun dealers in other countries. Furthermore, this completely ignores the fact that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) admitted that less than 1% of international gun crimes involve a lawfully-exported firearm. This is clearly an excuse to target U.S. firearm companies to appease the radical left.
My bill is simple: it prohibits federal funds from being used to finalize, implement, or enforce this harmful rule."
Adam Naylor, President of Outdoorsman Precision Manufacturing in Celina, TN said, "Our business was forced to close last month with over $1,000,000 in open orders that were either put on hold or completely canceled as our OEM customers' sales declined during the BIS Pause; eight Jobs lost in a distressed community, $600,000 in hard cash investments, $1,000,000 of unsecured loans unable to be repaid, [and] $1,500,000 of capital equipment surrendered to the banks…"
BACKGROUND: The Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a new rule on firearm exports on April 30, 2024, following a 90-day pause, which lasted more than 180 days. Under the rule, licenses to export firearms for certain countries will lose four-year validity, lowering firearms licenses to only one year. Not only does this vastly increase red tape for licensees, but it could result in BIS needing to process thousands more licenses per year without adequate staff. In addition, this change does not have a 'grandfather clause' for those licensees who have been granted a four-year license. Thus, those businesses that made significant investments and signed contracts beyond four years now have no certainty. Since these licenses will be approved yearly on a case-by-case basis, it is entirely up to the whims of anti-gun Washington bureaucrats whether their business may continue to operate.
The Biden administration's "crime control" provision holds American firearm exporters responsible for crimes committed in other countries, even if they follow the letter of the law. Setting up a system where the factors leading to a license revocation are completely out of the control of businesses removes the certainty they need in order to operate.
The previous policy permitted the export of spare parts under $500 without a license. This rule removes the exception for multiple firearms and related commodities, which could double the amount of licenses BIS must approve and cause the backlog to skyrocket. On July 1, BIS plans to revoke letters to hundreds, potentially thousands, of license holders, notifying them that they are no longer eligible to do business.
Read the text of the bill here.
This bill was cosponsored by: Diana Harshbarger (R-TN), Andy Ogles (R-TN), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Dan Bishop (R-NC), Ben Cline (R-VA), Clay Higgins (R-LA), Randy Weber (R-TX), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), Aaron Bean (R-FL), Brian Babin (R-TX).
The STOP the BIS RULE Act is endorsed by the NSSF, Gun Owners of America, and the Firearms & Ammunition Import/Export Roundtable (FAIR Trade Group).
Read the exclusive in the Daily Caller by Katelynn Richardson here.
Read about Rep. Green's previous bill, the Protect American Gun Exporters Act here and in Fox Newsand Fox 17 Nashville. You can also read his op-eds in the Washington Times or in ClarksvilleNow.
Read Rep. Green's letter to Department of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, signed by 87 other Republicans here. Read about the letter from The Daily Caller, The Washington Times, and Reuters.
Watch Rep. Green grill U.S. Commerce Secretary Alan F. Estevez on the so-called 90-day pause in a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing here.
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