Advocating for a bipartisan bill introduced by Southwestern lawmakers to direct certain fees to land port expansions, equipment investments and staffing was the top priority for customs brokers in town to lobby as part of the group's annual government affairs conference.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., the top Republican on the Senate committee that covers labor, criticized the Biden-Harris administration for not intervening to prevent a strike of union dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports. The Longshoremen's contract ends Sept. 30.

A bill that would set up a pilot program for non-asset-based third-party logistics providers and warehouses to participate in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program passed the House of Representatives on a voice vote Sept. 23, after passing the Senate in July. The CTPAT Pilot Program Act of 2023 would require that CBP run the pilot program for 20 3PLs in total, of which 10 will be non-asset-based and 10 others will be entities that manage and execute logistics services with their “own warehousing assets and resources on behalf of its customers.” Both warehousing companies and non-asset-based 3PLs currently aren't allowed to join CTPAT.

A bipartisan group of senators, led by Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., have introduced a bill that would prohibit entry into the U.S. of both cargo and passenger ships that call on a port that was expropriated. Passenger ships are described as those that carry at least 149 people, with sleeping quarters. It also requires the U.S. trade representative to report to Congress on what the U.S. position will be during USMCA review on such expropriations.

Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., introduced a bill that would ban the import and sale of kangaroo skin and products made with kangaroo skin, called "k-leather." According to the senators, the U.S. is the second-largest commercial market for k-leather products, such as soccer cleats. According to Pan-Am leathers, it's also used for boxing gloves and baseball gloves.

Reps. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., and Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., along with two other Republicans and one Democrat, recently introduced a bill to amend the Controlled Substances Act to require that all manufacturers, distributors, importers and merchants involved with pill presses only import, carry, or sell machines with serial numbers affixed to them.

The leading Democrat in efforts to restrict de minimis in the House of Representatives, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore, has tried to restrict de minimis eligibility since the beginning of 2022, and has said that getting a bill passed is how he'd like to end his career in Congress (see 2402150060).

Rubio introduced a bill that would change the country of origin for goods so that a company owned by or based in China or any other "foreign adversary" would assign the adversary country of origin to those companies' goods, no matter where the goods were manufactured. The bill is silent on whether that would also apply to U.S.-manufactured goods by Chinese companies, such as Volvo cars.

More than 25 agriculture groups asked the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees' leaders this week to renew the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program.

A bill that would only allow goods made in Palestinian-administered parts of the West Bank to be labeled as originating in the West Bank, and would require that goods made in Israeli settlements to be labeled as Israeli passed the House of Representatives 231-189 late Sept. 18.