Hatch Schedules Markup as Lawmakers Target Customs Bill as Amendment Vehicle
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, will mark up on April 22 four trade bills that emerged from months of trade negotiations on Capitol Hill. The markup comes just a day after the trade legislation hearing on April 21. Committee members will debate and potentially amend Trade Promotion Authority, Trade Adjustment Assistance, Customs Reauthorization and a preference package that includes renewals for the Generalized System of Preferences and the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
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Customs Reauthorization is likely to be the primary vehicle for trade amendments during the Finance Committee markup on April 22, said multiple trade lobbyists on April 20. Lawmakers want to keep TPA, TAA and the preference package “clean,” said one of those lobbyists. Lawmakers introduced TPA on April 16 and TAA in the House and Senate over recent days, and both houses later introduced the preference package. Hatch introduced Customs Reauthorization, S-1015, on April 20, and also released summaries of all four bills on the same day (here).
Another lobbyist said lawmakers and staffers on the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees are “circling the wagons” to prevent changes to TPA and the preference package. If Customs Reauthorization is chosen as the only vehicle, Hatch and Wyden will likely rally together to prevent amendments on the other bills, said the lobbyist. “When the Chairman and ranking member come out against amendments, other members basically can’t get anything through,” the lobbyist said. “So they’re offering Customs Reauthorization.”
The filing deadline for amendments due for consideration during the markup is April 21 at 12 p.m., said a Finance spokeswoman. The lawmakers haven’t yet decided on the vehicle, she and two committee staffers said. In an interview on the side of the April 21 hearing, Finance member Mark Warner, D-Va., said the process of determining a vehicle is "a swirl."
Another Finance member Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, wants to tack his trade remedy bill onto a bill during the markup, said a Brown staffer. The Leveling the Playing Field Act, S-891 (here), aims to strengthen the Commerce Department’s enforcement of antidumping duties (see 1504080013). “We plan on exploring multiple avenues to pass this bill through the markup process,” said the staffer. “We expect strong bipartisan support.”
Several senators also want to tack a process reform measure for the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill on legislation at the markup, said a staffer for Finance member Rob Portman, R-Ohio. That legislation would give industry an option to submit individual tariff suspension bills through the International Trade Commission, rather than through lawmakers (see 1504200017).
Many trade observers also expect lawmakers to offer up a currency manipulation measure for amendment. A bipartisan total of six Finance members, including second highest-ranking Democrat on the committee Chuck Schumer, N.Y., are co-sponsors of the Currency Undervaluation Investigation Act, S-433 (here). Finance member Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and a number of other committee Democrats pressed lawmakers and the witnesses during the April 21 hearing to support measures against currency as part of the trade bills moving forward. “This markup is a unique opportunity to do something about the rapaciousness of trade with China,” said Schumer. “I hope we will. And we cannot have weak tea … anything that is just discretionary.”
Failure to change U.S. policy on currency manipulation “would be a disaster for America,” said Warner. Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and other House Republicans have consistently shot down currency legislation in recent weeks (see 1502130023). Obama administration officials also oppose currency legislation (see 1502250015).