Elaine Duke, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, faced little opposition in her confirmation hearing before a Senate panel March 8. The DHS deputy secretary has been heavily involved in managing ACE/ITDS in the past, chairing the Border Interagency Executive Committee (BIEC). If confirmed, Duke would come over from her role as an acquisition and business consultant. At least one Democrat will support Duke’s nomination, as Sen. Jon Tester of Montana pledged he would do so during her confirmation hearing. While not offering anything specific, Duke committed to working with Congress to stem the harmful impacts of drugs flowing into the U.S., after Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, asked her to support his Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act, which would require shipments from foreign countries through the U.S. Postal Service to provide advance electronic data to CBP about the packages before they cross into the U.S. (see 1702160060). The legislation would give law enforcement necessary resources to target packages that contain illegal drugs, Portman said during the hearing.

The Committee to Support U.S. Trade Laws in a March 1 statement (here) called on the Senate to quickly advance President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer. “Ambassador Lighthizer possesses unquestionable qualifications to serve as USTR,” CSUSTL President Tom Sneeringer said in a statement (here). “He is a brilliant strategist, a highly effective negotiator and an irrefutable patriot. With [Commerce] Secretary [Wilbur] Ross now in place, it is imperative that this most promising pairing be completed and the work of refashioning the U.S. approach to trade agreements – and trade enforcement – begun.” The Senate Finance Committee, which has yet to hold hearings regarding Lighthizer’s confirmation, didn’t comment.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) issued a list of spending and tax alternatives to the border adjustability elements in the House GOP tax plan, which the group claims will raise more than $2 trillion in tax increases and spending cuts, The Hill reported (here). The measures AFP is proposing include converting low-income assistance programs to block grants, finding other aircraft to replace planned F-35 buys and cutting the “improper payment rate for federal spending programs in half,” The Hill said. “These proposals are estimated to produce 10-year savings of $417 billion, $29 billion and $720 billion, respectively.”

Congressional reactions to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s statutorily mandated report on the trade policy agenda for 2017 largely hewed to party lines, with Republicans cheering the plan and some Democrats calling for more substance. Senate Finance Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in a statement (here) that many of President Donald Trump’s trade objectives laid out in the report (here) submitted March 1 to Congress are “laudable,” but that “there remains little substance” about how Trump plans to approach trade during his time in office. “While some of the priorities of the Administration are laudable -- such as strictly enforcing U.S. trade laws and negotiating new and better trade deals -- the report includes no indication of how they would be achieved,” the statement says. “This omission is particularly surprising given the many statements the president has made over the past year, and continues to make, regarding American trade policy.”

Agricultural export stakeholders before a congressional panel on Feb. 28 requested that the expected 2018 Farm Bill double the current authorized funding levels for two government food export assistance programs. During a hearing of the House Agriculture Livestock and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee on the next farm bill’s addressment of international development programs, industry members requested twofold growth of the $200 million yearly authorization for governmental food export assistance under the Foreign Agricultural Service’s (FAS) Market Access Program (MAP) and the current $34.5 million annual authorization for export financing under FAS’s Foreign Market Development (FMD) program.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, noted there are some significant issues that remain before the Senate would agree to the border adjustment tax being discussed in the House, during a Feb. 28 interview with CNBC (here). Hatch said that the House GOP's border-adjustable tax plan is worth considering but that definitive details have yet to emerge. "The House seems to want it, or at least some people in the House want it, and I have some real reservations about it, but I'm open to good ideas from wherever they come," Hatch said. Tax reform has a long way to go and it will be difficult to pass it through both bodies, he said. Bloomberg reported (here) on Feb. 28 that House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has won White House chief strategist Steve Bannon's support on border adjustability. Americans for Affordable Products, an anti-border adjustability coalition, wrote a letter (here) to House and Senate leaders stating that the proposal would raise "effective tax rates for many companies to well over 100%," and hand down the costs of raised taxes to U.S. consumers. The coalition includes the American Apparel and Footwear Association, the National Retail Federation and the Travel Goods Association, among many others. The White House and Ryan's office didn't immediately comment.

Liberal House Democrats called on President Donald Trump to address how future U.S. trade agreements will take into account currency manipulation, food safety and organized labor, among other areas, during his speech before a joint session of Congress on Feb. 28. Reps. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and Pete DeFazio of Oregon also complained that Trump hasn’t delivered on trade promises since taking office, during a Feb. 28 call with reporters ahead of the speech.

National Foreign Trade Council President Rufus Yerxa in a Feb. 23 letter urged Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to undertake a speedy confirmation process for U.S. Trade Representative nominee Robert Lighthizer, to ensure the smooth functioning of U.S. trade policy and fulfillment of congressional trade mandates. “Without a strong leader at USTR, one who is able to attract a good team of Deputies and gain the respect of Cabinet peers, Congressional leaders and foreign governments, American leadership in world trade and the institutions related thereto will begin to erode,” Yerxa said. “We recognize that your committee must have an opportunity to fully examine the qualifications and record of any nominee for this important position. However, we urge you to move as expeditiously as possible.” Yerxa highlighted Lighthizer’s previous service as a trade practitioner, deputy USTR under President Ronald Reagan and Senate Finance staff director, saying the nominee has the “qualifications and experience to be a highly successful USTR.” Senate Finance didn’t comment.

Lawmakers recently introduced the following trade-related bills:

House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Dave Reichert, R-Wash., and fellow committee Republicans met with “key members” of the Trump administration’s trade team on Feb. 16, Reichert said in a statement (here). “High-quality trade agreements are critical to the success of our farmers, workers, entrepreneurs and local and national economy,” Reichert said. “We must put America’s interests first by giving our exporters access to new markets, holding our trading partners accountable, and creating new opportunities to sell our goods around the world. I look forward to building on the meeting we had today and working toward our shared goals of engaging in high-quality trade agreements and growing jobs here at home.”