Trump's Budget Blueprint Proposes Strengthening Commerce Trade Enforcement
President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget blueprint proposed to strengthen the Commerce Department International Trade Administration’s enforcement and compliance functions, according to the plan released March 16 (here). The blueprint laid out high-level plans for “rescaling” ITA’s export promotion and trade analysis functions. In total, the White House is requesting $7.8 billion for Commerce, $1.5 billion less than annualized funding under the fiscal 2017 continuing resolution (CR). The Trump administration plans to submit a comprehensive fiscal 2018 budget request for congressional approval in May, the Department of Homeland Security said in a press release (here). The budget also proposes to eliminate the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
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The fiscal 2018 blueprint also “focuses” the Labor Department “Bureau of International Labor Affairs [ILAB] on ensuring that U.S. trade agreements are fair for American workers.” The administration also proposed an end to the bureau’s “largely noncompetitive and unproven grant funding,” which would cut $60 million from the fiscal 2017 annualized CR level for those grants. Among other things, the ILAB produces a list of goods and countries suspected of involving child or forced labor (see 1609150018).
The budget blueprint also proposes to “fully fund” the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, and “prioritizes” funds for Treasury’s economic enforcement activities, including sanctions on “rogue nations,” terrorists and weapons proliferators. The blueprint would also cancel funding for the Transportation Department’s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program, which would cut $499 million from the annualized fiscal 2017 CR level.
Trump also sent to Congress on March 16 a supplemental fiscal 2017 request (here) to fund the Department of Homeland Security and Defense Department after the current CR expires on April 28, until Sept. 30, 2017. That request asks for $286 million more than former President Barack Obama’s $11.3 billion fiscal 2017 request for CBP operations and support, to be allocated for enforcement of customs, border security and immigration laws. The Trump administration is requesting that the $286 million remain available until Sept. 30, 2018. The supplemental request also proposes more than quadrupling Obama’s $323.4 million fiscal 2017 request for CBP procurement, construction and improvements, mostly to fund the planned U.S. southern border wall. The blueprint notes a total fiscal 2017 request for $1.7 billion for CBP’s procurement account, $1.4 billion over Obama’s original request. The Senate and House Appropriations committees aim to finish final fiscal 2017 spending legislation by April 28, and fiscal 2018 spending legislation before the next fiscal year starts on Oct. 1, they said.