India’s “troubling trend” of trade discrimination -- burdensome local content regulations, flouting of intellectual property rights -- require the U.S. to use all “available tools and diplomatic engagement,” a group of business groups from various industries said in a June 6 letter to President Obama. Courts and lawmakers in India have also engaged in a “persistent pattern of discrimination designed to benefit India’s business community at the expense of American jobs,” said the 17 groups which signed the letter. India recently demanded that nearly 100 percent of its market for certain information technology and clean energy equipment be satisfied through domestic firms, the letter said. Court rulings have also imposed “arbitrary marketing restrictions on medical devices and denying, breaking, or revoking patents for nearly a dozen lifesaving medications.”

The Office of Management and Budget outlined some best practices for government agency employee travel and attendance of industry conferences in a recent memorandum to the Chief Financial Officers of federal agencies. The federal agencies, including CBP, have recently cut back hard on agency travel expenditures as part of the sequestration budget reductions (see 13031413).. While each agency is ultimately responsible for internal travel and conference policies, OMB provided some basic guidelines as best practices. The memo was released by the American Society of Association Executives (here).

President Obama warned he would veto the Department of Homeland Security funding bill -- approved by the House Appropriations Committee May 22 -- unless the bill passes within a larger budget framework that prevents “draconian” cuts to the economy and middle-class priorities. In a June 3 statement of administration policy, the White House expressed overall support for the bill, but said enacting HR-2217 while adhering to overall spending limits in the House budget for fiscal year 2014 would cut money for Head Start, special education, medical grants and law enforcement. “Unless this bill passes the Congress in the context of an overall budget framework that supports our recovery and enables sufficient investments in education, infrastructure, innovation and national security for our economy to compete in the future, the President’s senior advisors would recommend that he veto H.R. 2217 and any other legislation that implements the House Republican Budget framework,” the statement said.

President Obama approved new U.S. sanctions against Iran June 3 targeting the country’s currency -- the first time the rial has been the direct focus of sanctions -- as well as its automotive sector and persons already placed on the Specially Designated Nationals List. The new Executive Order authorizes sanctions on foreign financial institutions that knowingly conduct or facilitate significant transactions for the purchase or sale of the rial. Foreign financial institutions that keep significant accounts outside Iran denominated in the rial are also subject to sanctions.

President Obama nominated former New York Congresswoman Ann Marie Buerkle to be a commissioner on the Consumer Product Safety Commission May 23. A former lawyer and nurse, Buerkle served in Congress from 2011-2013. She served as New York Assistant Attorney General from 1997 to 2009.

The White House announced it will continue the national emergency designation for Iraq another year, to May 22, 2014. Obstacles to the country's continued reconstruction, restoration and maintenance of peace and security in the country and the development of political and economic institutions "continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States," the White House said in its May 17 message to Congress about the extension (here). Iraq was first designated a national emergency country in 2003.

The U.S. and Turkey established a bilateral High Level Committee led by the Ministry of Economy of Turkey and the office of the USTR, associated with the 2009 Framework for Strategic Economic and Commercial Cooperation (FSECC), with the "ultimate objective of continuing to deepen our economic relations and liberalize trade." said the White House May 16. The White House also noted that the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union could impact Turkey due to its Customs Union with the EU.

The White House issued notice that the national emergency with respect to Yemen will continue for one year, until May 16, 2014. “The actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Yemen and others in threatening Yemen's peace, security, and stability continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” said the notice.

President Obama sent his nomination for Secretary of Commerce, Penny Pritzker, to the Senate May 9. For more on Pritzker's background, see 13050221. Also sent to the Senate was the nomination of Rose Eilene Gottemoeller to be Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. She would replace Ellen Taucher, who resigned.

President Obama sent the nominations of Michael Froman to be U.S. Trade Representative and Anthony Foxx to be Transportation Secretary to the Senate May 7. See 13050221 for more on Froman and [Ref13043017] for more on Foxx.