On Tuesday President Bush signed a set of directives to improve the current export control process for items on the U.S. Munitions List. While this is being called “reform” in some quarters, it’s really more of an improvement of existing processes, as outlined in a State Department fact sheet: additional funding will be allocated for the review of license applications, a 60-day deadline for a decision on a license application, and electronic application systems for all types of licenses. The reforms do not, however, involve taking anything on or off the Munitions List, such as satellite components.

Despite the limited scope of the reforms, industry is endorsing the changes. “We view the administration’s action as an important step in a long-term process to achieve meaningful reform in the way the United States regulates defense trade and advanced technology exchange,” the Coalition for Security and Competitiveness said in a statement. The coalition submitted a set of recommendations for licensing changes on the Munitions List as well as dual-use items to the administration in March 2007, a subset of which were adopted.

The problems with the export control process prompted Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) to introduce HR 4246 in November. That bill includes some of the same reforms that the administration enacted this week; one of the bill’s co-sponsors, Rep. Dan Manzullo (R-IL), told The Hill that he and others in Congress worked with the administration on the announced reforms.