The Senate recently passed, through unanimous consent, a bill that says that public disclosure of manifest information, such as the name and address of the importer or consignee and the name and address of the shipper, will not happen if the "Secretary of the Treasury makes an affirmative finding on a shipment-by-shipment basis that disclosure is likely to pose a threat of personal injury or property damage."

The Customs Business Fairness Act, a bill that would restore a carve-out to bankruptcy law that would protect customs brokers, was reintroduced in the House last week. The bill would make it so that the money that brokers send to CBP to pay tariffs is not subject to clawback if the clients who paid the tariff go bankrupt. In bankruptcy, clawback provisions are there so that company insiders or other parties don't get favorable payments just before a filing.

Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, one of the Democratic party's majority makers in 2018 and a centrist from the Houston area, will lead the trade task force in the New Democrat Coalition caucus this Congress. She said the New Dems want to advocate for tariff relief, and for tariff elimination with the U.K. and the EU. "The New Dems have long been at the center of driving pro-growth, pro-innovation policy that recognizes the importance of trade in our economy and the opportunities that it presents," she said at a recent press conference announcing the leaders of the task forces. Reps. Don Beyer, D-Va., and Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., are the co-chairs of the task force, and both serve on the House Ways and Means Committee.

For the second year in a row, members of Congress are arguing that they should vote to ban the import of Russian uranium (see 2203280068), but the Senate reintroduction of the bill is now bipartisan, with powerful swing vote Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., on board.

Two Republicans and two Democrats have introduced a bill to renew HELP, the Haiti Economic Lift Program, which would extend tariff breaks for apparel from Haiti for 10 years beyond the current 2025 expiration date. The products covered are 93% of Haitian exports, according to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

Senators unveiled legislation this week that would give the administration new authority to block transactions with TikTok and other foreign technology products that threaten U.S. national security. The bill, which has bipartisan support and was endorsed by the White House, would require the Commerce Department to establish new procedures to prohibit or mitigate transactions involving information and communications technology products “in which any foreign adversary has any interest and poses undue or unacceptable risk to national security.”

Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and John Thune, R-S.D., recently introduced a bill called Undertaking Negotiations on Investment and Trade for Economic Dynamism (United) Act, which would use the last trade promotion authority's language to authorize a free-trade negotiation with the U.K.

The House Ways and Means Committee passed an oversight plan (see 2302270041) for the 118th Congress along party lines Feb. 28.

The new Republican majority in the House Ways and Means Committee said it plans to do oversight across a multitude of trade policies advanced by the administration, including enforcement of trade agreements and trade negotiations for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity, the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade and the U.S.-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership. For existing FTAs, the committee said it wishes to identify provisions that should be updated to improve the agreements' benefits for the U.S.

A bipartisan group of House members introduced a bill this week that could strengthen the U.S. ability to respond to economic coercion by foreign countries. The bill, which was introduced in the Senate earlier this month (see 2302080068), would allow the president to lower duties on non-import-sensitive goods made by a country that lost exports due to coercive actions; increase duties on imports from the "foreign adversary" committing the coercion; and allow the U.S. to more easily facilitate trade, including exports, with the coerced parties.