In the long term, AIA aims to lobby Congress and the Administration to develop a unified export control system. Licenses deemed militarily sensitive would be filtered from Commerce to State. However, the AIA's prescription to improve the export control system is not without its critics. Dr. Larry Wortzel, Director of the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation, believes the two-track structure of State and Commerce with support from the Department of Defense is necessary to ensure that breaches in export policy do not occur. He blamed the increase in narco-terrorism and the explosion of Colombian coca and heroin cultivation on the slow U.S. response to pleas for aid.
Mica chairs the panel.
The conventional wisdom on Capitol Hill is that in an election year this aid package will sail through Congress. But the Administration is hearing an opposing view from a few legislators. Others, such as Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Jim McGovern, worry about mission creep - an expansion of the U.S. commitment beyond the current mission. Still others active in the fight against drugs believe spending billions of dollars on interdiction efforts in Colombia is a misdirected effort which would be better used in treatment centers in the United States. U.S. is Leader in Fight Against Small Arms, Official Says Arms control advocates directed pointed questions to an Administration official during a conference on small arms proliferation in Washington on February 4.