119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4215
AN ACT 
To require the Secretary of State to promulgate expedited 
and fixed timelines for the decision-making process to 
license the export of certain defense articles and defense 
services, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘International Traffic 
in Arms Regulations Licensing Reform Act’’. 
SEC. 2. LIST OF COUNTRIES AND END-USERS TO RECEIVE 
PRIORITY FOR DIRECT COMMERCIAL SALES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State 
shall develop and maintain a list of countries and end-
users with respect to which expedited decision-making for 
applications for licenses for the export of defense articles 
and defense services is vital to the national security of the 
United States, consistent with the requirements of the 
Arms Export Control Act and other applicable provisions 
of law. 
(b) SUBMISSION TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 30 
days after the development of the list required by sub-
section (a), and annually thereafter, the Secretary of State 
shall submit to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 
House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign 
Relations of the Senate an updated copy of the list. 
SEC. 3. DECISION-MAKING PROCESS FOR APPLICATIONS 
FOR DIRECT COMMERCIAL SALES. 
Not later than 30 days after the date on which the 
Secretary of State publishes the list required by section 
2, the Secretary, in coordination with the Secretary of De-
fense, shall initiate a rulemaking process to establish an
expedited timeline for the decision-making process with re-
spect to applications to export defense articles or defense 
services under the Arms Export Control Act to countries 
or end-users identified by such list and a fixed timeline 
for decisions for all other applications for such exports. 
The timelines so established shall provide that, to the max-
imum extent practicable—
(1) an application to export defense articles or 
defense services to a listed country or end-user shall 
be approved, returned, or denied not later than 45 
days after the date on which the application is sub-
mitted to the Secretary; 
(2) an application to export defense articles or 
defense services to any country or end-user shall be 
approved, returned, or denied not later than 60 days 
after the date on which the application is submitted 
to the Secretary; and 
(3) the deadlines described in paragraphs (1) 
and (2) may be suspended with respect to an appli-
cation if necessary—
(A) for applicable time periods specified in 
subsection (b), (c), or (d) of section 36 of such 
Act, during which Congress may enact a joint 
resolution prohibiting the approval of such ap-
plication; or
(B) for such time as may be required to 
receive a decision from the Secretary of Defense 
with respect to an application that is subject to 
approval by the Department of Defense, includ-
ing technology security and foreign disclosure 
release determinations. 
SEC. 4. REPORTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of State shall sub-
mit to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House 
of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Rela-
tions of the Senate on a semi-annual basis a report, which 
may be submitted in classified form, that identifies each 
application to export defense articles or defense services 
during the preceding 180-day period with respect to which 
the time to reach a decision exceeded the applicable dead-
line described in section 3(1) or 3(2). 
(b) MATTER TO BE INCLUDED.—The report required 
by this section shall also include the following information 
with respect to each application so identified: 
(1) The defense articles or defense services in-
cluded in the application. 
(2) The recipient country, end-user, and any 
corporate entities involved in the application.