House Chairs call for AUKUS Reform

House Republican national security leadership called for the White House to expand license-free defense trade among the U.S., U.K., and Australia to ensure the success of AUKUS Pillar Two and "unleash the combined potential of the three countries’ defense industrial bases to counter the Chinese Communist Party."

“To promote the successful implementation of Pillar Two, we included bipartisan language in the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act providing for license-free defense trade among AUKUS partners, with very limited exceptions,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) wrote.

“After four months of delays, the Biden-Harris administration finally issued these congressionally mandated exemptions for Australia and the U.K. Disappointingly, it also included a lengthy Excluded Technologies List (ETL) that jeopardizes the viability of Pillar Two.

"This list is not in the spirit of the agreement to promote cutting edge and innovative technology essential for enhancing the Indo-Pacific security environment...We urge you and your senior leaders to continue to review items included on the ETL and remove as many as possible that do not warrant inclusion in order to unleash AUKUS’ full potential.”

"We agree with Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, who stated in testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the current ETL “could lead to a very cumbersome process, long reviews, overruns in terms of times and delivery."

The full text of the letter can be found here.