Both those staffers and spokesmen for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), the Pentagon agency that handles the sales, said that intense and lengthy consultation with Congress had to continue before the official notification would be delivered. By then, all issues are normally ironed out, and approval is virtually automatic.
This is the way it works:
The administration first sends the House and Senate armed services committees, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee a draft notification for “pre-consultation” between the two sides. If there is no objection, the administration sends an informal notification, which initiates a 20-day final consultation period.
At the end of the period, the administration can send the formal notification, which gives Congress 30 days to reject or accept the sale.
However, if both sides agree, the 20-day consultation can be waived and the official notification can be sent immediately. Then, approval is virtually automatic, and the planned sale is publicly announced by the DSCA.
It is generally agreed that the notification must be sent while Congress is in session to allow the lawmakers a chance to reject the sales. If Congress adjourns next Friday sine die (a Latin phrase meaning “indefinitely”), such an adjournment would signal an end to the 110th Congress, and no sale would be possible.
That would leave it up to the new US president elected in November, and most observers in the US feel that would delay the sales even further.
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