Bruce Lusignan (born 1936) is an emeritus professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University and a visiting professor at Portland State University . He earned his B.S.E.E ('58), M.S.E.E. ('59) and Ph.D. ('63) degrees from Stanford. In the early 1960s, he worked in radio astronomy at Stanford. He has been director of Stanford's Communication Satellite Planning Center and Stanford's Center for International Cooperation in Space. He has also owned a small company designing cellular phones and pagers .
30-505: The Arms Export Control Act of 1976 (Title II of Pub. L. 94–329 , 90 Stat. 729 , enacted June 30, 1976 , codified at 22 U.S.C. ch. 39 ) gives the President of the United States the authority to control the import and export of defense articles and defense services. The H.R. 13680 legislation was passed by the 94th Congressional session and enacted into law by
60-551: A United States Air Force (USAF) contract to develop plasma technology to reduce drag on airplane wings. One application was for unmanned air vehicles (drones). Roth was accused of violating the law by sharing technical (not classified) data with Chinese and Iranian graduate students, and of having technical data on his laptop during a trip to China. Roth and others said that the AECA, as applied in his case, would violate academic freedom and force professors to discriminate against students on
90-644: A slip law and in the United States Statutes at Large after receiving the act. Thereafter, the changes are published in the United States Code . Through the process of judicial review , an act of Congress that violates the Constitution may be declared unconstitutional by the courts. A judicial declaration that an act of Congress is unconstitutional does not remove the act from the Statutes at Large or
120-485: A "significant impact on U.S. government policy, both on long-range planning and on several major individual sales." In 1975, President Gerald Ford's arms sale to Jordan led Congress to examine how to strengthen the Nelson-Bingham Amendment. A significant number of sale notifications had been allowed to be kept classified by the executive. The time period of Congressional review had been found to be deficient and
150-485: A one-house veto over significant arms sales. Stern and Nelson settled on a reporting "tripwire" of $ 25 million, the cost of a squadron of F-5E's. Nelson has credited Stern with conceiving the amendment and supplying the persistence needed to steer the attention of the Senate to arms sales. Nelson's proposed floor measure passed 44 to 43 in the Senate but a like House measure introduced by Representative Jonathan Bingham of New York
180-527: A staffer of the Committee of Senate Foreign Relations, tried to interest members in establishing a procedure by which Congress could review large arms sales. Finding no takers, Jones mentioned the idea to Paula Stern , then a foreign policy aide to Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, later the Chairwoman of the U.S. International Trade Commission (1984-1986). Nelson approved the idea and introduced an amendment for
210-650: A violation of the requirements of the AECA. The AECA requires that each nation that receives a shipment of arms from the United States must certify that the weapons are used for internal security and legitimate self-defense, and that their use does not lead to an escalation of conflict. However, the AECA does not define "internal security" or "legitimate self-defense." Kucinich said that Israel's actions in Gaza killed nearly 600 and injured over 2,500, including innocent civilians and children in residential areas and civilian institutions like schools. Kucinich said that this may have violated
240-490: Is a statute enacted by the United States Congress . Acts may apply only to individual entities (called private laws ), or to the general public ( public laws ). For a bill to become an act, the text must pass through both houses with a majority, then be either signed into law by the president of the United States , be left unsigned for ten days (excluding Sundays) while Congress remains in session, or, if vetoed by
270-564: Is made by the third method, the presiding officer of the house that last reconsidered the act promulgates it. Under the United States Constitution , if the president does not return a bill or resolution to Congress with objections before the time limit expires, then the bill automatically becomes an act; however, if the Congress is adjourned at the end of this period, then the bill dies and cannot be reconsidered (see pocket veto ). If
300-410: Is sometimes used in informal speech to indicate something for which getting permission is burdensome. For example, "It takes an act of Congress to get a building permit in this town." An act adopted by simple majorities in both houses of Congress is promulgated , or given the force of law, in one of the following ways: The president promulgates acts of Congress made by the first two methods. If an act
330-567: The Black Horse concept. and has helped direct planning efforts for international cooperation on Mars exploration with the then- Soviet Union . He led later post-Soviet cooperation in planning for an international Mars mission that included a space logistics function for ICBMs : using missiles such as the SS-18 to pre-position fuel and other supplies in Earth orbit, and Russia's Energia booster to send
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#1732845040970360-610: The People's Republic of China , and the United Kingdom. They were fined $ 100 million US dollars , although they were also given the option of spending half of that sum on research and development of new night vision technology. The United States government will assume rights to the resulting created intellectual property. In January 2009, Congressman Dennis Kucinich sent a notice to Secretary of State, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, that Israel's actions in Gaza since December 27, 2008 may constitute
390-655: The 1980s, Professor Bruce Lusignan of Stanford University and President C. Peter Magrath of the University of Minnesota both openly violated the arms export control act with support of their institutions. In the 1990s, after a report from RSA Data Security, Inc., who were in a licensing dispute with regard to use of the RSA algorithm in PGP, the Customs Service started a criminal investigation of Phil Zimmermann , for allegedly violating
420-479: The 38th President of the United States Gerald R. Ford on June 30, 1976. The Act of Congress requires international governments receiving weapons from the United States to use the armaments for legitimate self-defense . Consideration is given as to whether the exports "would contribute to an arms race , aid in the development of weapons of mass destruction , support international terrorism , increase
450-447: The AECA because they didn't further Israel's internal security or legitimate self-defense, but increased the possibility of an outbreak or escalation of conflict. The charges were denied by the IDF and no action has been taken under the act. In July 2009 John Reece Roth, a former University of Tennessee professor, was convicted of violating the AECA and sentenced to 48 months in prison. Roth had
480-477: The Arms Export Control Act. The US Government had long regarded cryptographic software as a munition, and thus subject to arms trafficking export controls. At that time, the boundary between permitted ("low-strength") cryptography and impermissible ("high-strength") cryptography placed PGP well on the too-strong-to-export side (this boundary has since been relaxed). The investigation lasted three years, but
510-580: The President is aware of the possibility of violations of the AECA, the law requires a report to Congress on the potential violations. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducts an industry outreach program called the Project Shield America to prevent foreign adversaries, terrorists, and criminal networks from obtaining U.S. munitions and strategic technology. From 1963 to 1973, 128 nations received $ 2.5 trillion in weapons and services,
540-743: The United States Code; rather, it prevents the act from being enforced. However, the act as published in annotated codes and legal databases is marked with annotations indicating that it is no longer good law. Bruce Lusignan His areas of specialization are communications satellites , telephone switches , cellular networks and the related signal processing problems. He is inventor or co-inventor on 16 patents, including devices for metering power, RF signal reception, satellite transceivers, alarm systems for cellular base stations, tone generators for telephony, and VSAT terminals. He has worked on designs for reusable launch vehicles based on
570-624: The basis of nationality. Harris Corporation prior to its 2019 L3 Technologies merger settled a $ 13 million export violation to Canada of unauthorized transfers of software, military radios and other military gear after a report of 131 alleged violations by the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls . L3Harris Technologies also admitted that T7 robots had been temporarily transferred to Thailand, Singapore and Germany without proper authorizations. Act of Congress#Public law, private law, designation An act of Congress
600-483: The dollar level of $ 25 million as a tripwire had prevented a number of smaller sales from avoiding scrutiny. Members of Congress also sought to expand the scope of their review beyond government-to-government sales. The 1976 Arms Control Act incorporated these and other changes. The scope of the act was challenged by professors and universities, who felt that restrictions placed on foreign nationals, including international students and visiting professors, were excessive. In
630-523: The majority from the United States. Law only required that the Secretary of State report “significant” arms sales to Congress, semi-annually. In the early 1970s, legislators moved to become involved in deciding to whom arm sales could be made and under what circumstances. Concern over arms sales increased significantly in the summer of 1973, when news surfaced of a potential Nixon Administration sale of F-4 fighter-bombers to Saudi Arabia. In 1973, Norvill Jones,
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#1732845040970660-436: The possibility of outbreak or escalation of conflict , or prejudice the development of bilateral or multilateral arms control or nonproliferation agreements or other arrangements." The Act also places certain restrictions on American arms traders and manufacturers, prohibiting them from the sale of certain sensitive technologies to certain parties and requiring thorough documentation of such trades to trusted parties. When
690-445: The president rejects a bill or resolution while the Congress is in session, a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress is needed for reconsideration to be successful. Promulgation in the sense of publishing and proclaiming the law is accomplished by the president, or the relevant presiding officer in the case of an overridden veto, delivering the act to the archivist of the United States . The archivist provides for its publication as
720-416: The president, receive a congressional override from 2 ⁄ 3 of both houses. In the United States, acts of Congress are designated as either public laws , relating to the general public, or private laws , relating to specific institutions or individuals. Since 1957, all Acts of Congress have been designated as "Public Law X–Y" or "Private Law X–Y", where X is the number of the Congress and Y refers to
750-585: The processing time for arms cases increased starting in 2003. In 2006 Boeing was fined $ 15 million for unlicensed foreign sales involving a gyroscopic microchip or gyrochip with military applications. In March 2007, ITT Corporation was fined for criminal violation of the act. The fines resulted from ITT's outsourcing program, in which they transferred night vision goggles and classified information about countermeasures against laser weapons , including light interference filters to engineers in Singapore ,
780-408: The sequential order of the bill (when it was enacted). For example, P. L. 111–5 ( American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ) was the fifth enacted public law of the 111th United States Congress . Public laws are also often abbreviated as Pub. L. No. X–Y. When the legislation of those two kinds are proposed, it is called public bill and private bill respectively. The word "act", as used in
810-696: The supplies to Mars ahead of the crew. Lusignan also takes a strong interest in the politics and issues that arise in economic development, including sustainable development in Africa, earthquake relief and reconstruction in Peru, and rural telecommunications in the Middle East. For a number of years he ran EDGE – "Ethics of Development in a Global Environment" – a weekly seminar at Stanford about issues in international conflict, trade, environmental sustainability, and amelioration of poverty and racism. In 1982, he
840-483: The term "act of Congress", is a common, not a proper noun . The capitalization of the word "act" (especially when used standing alone to refer to an act mentioned earlier by its full name) is deprecated by some dictionaries and usage authorities. However, the Bluebook requires "Act" to be capitalized when referring to a specific legislative act. The United States Code capitalizes "act". The term "act of Congress"
870-482: Was defeated. In 1974, a renewed attempt passed as the Nelson-Bingham Act of 1974. It provided that when the U.S. government offered to sell any defense article or service costing $ 25 million or more, the President must inform both Houses of Congress of the details, giving Congress twenty days to adopt a "veto" resolution. The Nelson-Bingham initiative worked "a profound transformation in arms export policy" and had
900-483: Was finally dropped without filing charges. From FY 2004 to FY 2006 there had been 283 arrests, 198 indictments, and 166 convictions based on AECA violations. In 2005 the Government Accounting Office (GAO) did a study on arms exports since 9/11 . The study noted that the system itself had not been changed since 9/11 since the system was already designed to counter such threats. The study did report that
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