We promised to move this to Promise Kept if the lame-duck Congress approved new regulations governing the export of aerospace technology. And at nearly the last minute of the 2012 session, lawmakers acted.

On Dec. 21, 2012, the Senate approved the House-Senate conference version of the fiscal year 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 4310), which includes a provision easing export controls for satellites. The Senate's approval -- on an 81-14 vote -- followed House passage of the same bill the previous evening by a 315-107 margin.

To recap, American technology companies — especially aerospace manufacturers — have long chafed under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR. These rules, administered by the State Department, are designed to prevent critical defense-related technologies from falling into the wrong hands. Under ITAR, technologies with military value may not be exported without a license from the State Department. The Commerce Department oversees, under somewhat looser controls, export of "dual-use" technologies that have both military and civilian applications.
       
ITAR makes it hard for U.S. aerospace companies to sell technologies such as satellites to foreign customers, which significantly reduces the size of their potential markets.
       
Last year, the Defense Department and State Department issued a report on whether it was advisable to make changes to the law. They concluded that communications satellites without classified components and remote-sensing satellites below a certain performance standard are not unique to the United States and aren't critical to national security. As a result, the report concluded, control could be safely shifted from the State Department to the Commerce Department.
       
The last-minute congressional action puts on the books a revised policy that tracks what the report recommended. We rate this a Promise Kept.