The Senate passed the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015, H.R. 83 (here), on Dec. 13, with bipartisan opposition and only 56 votes in favor. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill into law after several days of prodding lawmakers to support it. The law will fund the federal government at new levels through Sept. 30, 2015, but Department of Homeland Security appropriations are frozen at fiscal year 2014 levels until late February due to congressional opposition to the recent executive action on immigration. CBP is part of DHS, so its funding will also remain unchanged. The appropriations in the legislation boost funding for some Commerce Department trade functions, as well as the Consumer Product Safety Commission (see 1412100012).

The Obama administration’s independent review of Indian intellectual property rights protections falls far short of forcing real changes to that country’s IP policies, said incoming Senate Finance Committee chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in a Dec. 12 statement (here) that said the administration has now closed its investigation. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in late April it would complete the Out-of-Cycle Review after it declined to name India a Priority Foreign Country, the most severe classification of an intellectual property rights violator, in its annual Special 301 Watch List report (see 14101021). “If we are to successfully address India’s on-going disregard for the protection of U.S. intellectual property rights, it’s vital the Government of India and the Obama Administration act to develop a strong and meaningful action plan with concrete timetables for implementation,” said Hatch in the statement.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., will keep his party leadership position on the committee, after ranking member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, takes the chairmanship in the 114th Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a Dec. 12 emailed statement laying out committee assignments. The second-ranking Democrat on the committee, Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is retiring, so Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., will move up in seniority, along with other Democrats in the pecking order. That brings the total number of Democrats on the committee to 12. Finance Republicans totaled 11 in the 113th Congress. Senate Republicans have not yet publicly designated committee assignments.

Correction: The White House-backed omnibus funding bill that passed the House on Dec. 11 will extend appropriations for the Trade Adjustment Assistance program through the end of fiscal year 2015 at just over $700 million (see 1412100012).

The Agriculture Department must update the Senate on its recommendations for changes to the country-of-origin labeling regime for meat muscle cuts in the coming months, said the legislative report that accompanied the omnibus funding package passed by the House on Dec. 11. The White House-backed legislation is not yet law. The Senate is still considering the measure before President Barack Obama is able to sign it. If the legislation is enacted, the Senate report would be due two weeks after the World Trade Organization makes its final ruling in the COOL dispute or before by May 1, 2015. The U.S. appealed the most recent WTO ruling in the case in late November (see 1411280029). Many industry representatives have been pushing Congress to authorize USDA to rescind aspects of the labeling law that the WTO determines are inconsistent with global trade rules (se 1411060019). The language in the omnibus report suggests Congress will again have to legislate on the labeling in order to make changes.

President Barack Obama signed into law a two-day stopgap funding bill, H.J. Res. 130 (here), early on Dec. 12 that averts a federal government shutdown, following House and Senate passage of that measure only hours before the cut-off. The House also narrowly passed late on Dec. 11 the sprawling omnibus funding bill released in both chambers in recent days, with nearly 70 Republicans opposing the measure and only 57 Democrats voting in favor (here). Many lawmakers had hoped to leave the Capitol on Dec. 11 after passing the omnibus bill. But the Senate will still have to consider the measure, which funds the Department of Homeland Security through late February and the rest of the government through fiscal year 2015. Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., blasted the bill on Dec. 11, but the White House still managed to muscle dozens of supportive Democratic votes in the chamber. Obama endorsed the legislation several hours before the House vote (see 1412100063). Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., the lead Senate negotiator on the bill, urged colleagues to pass the measure late on Dec. 11. “The House has done their job,” said Mikulski (here). “Now I hope we do our job and that within the next 24 hours, we pass the omnibus spending bill. We’ll show that we can govern, that we will not have a government shutdown.”

Unfair South African antidumping duties on U.S. poultry products are jeopardizing the country’s beneficiary status under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, said Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., in a Dec. 9 letter to South African President Jacob Zuma (here). Set to expire in September 2015, AGOA provides duty-free access for sub-Saharan African exports, including agricultural goods, to the U.S. market. President Barack Obama chose to keep South Africa in the preference program in June, despite some speculation that the Obama administration would graduate the country from AGOA due to its economic growth (see 14062706).

More than 30 House Democrats pushed Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, to renew Trade Adjustment Assistance before the holiday recess in a Dec. 8 letter (here). The program is set to expire on Dec. 31. The top trade Democratic policymaker in the chamber, House ranking member Sandy Levin, D-Mich., sponsored the letter along with Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash. The lawmakers said the program is a critical lifeline for American workers adversely affected by trade, and also benefits the U.S. economy by bringing more unemployed Americans back to work. Many Democrats have pushed for TAA to move forward with Trade Promotion Authority, although that legislation is still languishing on Capitol Hill.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., went to bat for U.S. solar panel manufacturers in testimony before the International Trade Commission on Dec. 8, saying Chinese dumping is continuing to damage U.S. industry (here). The Commerce Department's final determination is scheduled for around Dec. 15. U.S. industry is starting to bounce back, said Wyden, after Commerce preliminarily determined in late July Chinese and Taiwanese exporters dumped crystalline silicon photovoltaic products into the U.S. market (see 14073011). “A strong determination from the Commission, coupled with antidumping and countervailing duties covering the full scope of unfair trade, will ensure the growth and resurgence of the domestic industry,” he said in testimony. The Chinese government previously said it wanted to reach a suspension agreement, but attorneys in the case said such a pact would have to be finalized 30 days before the Dec. 15 deadline for the Commerce final determination (see 14082002). Many U.S. industry members said the 2012 determination left a loophole that allowed Chinese producers to export their products via Taiwan without paying the U.S. duties.

Senate appropriators have not agreed on an omnibus appropriations bill to fund the federal government past the night of Dec. 11, despite pledges to float the legislation at some point on Dec. 8. The previous stopgap measure extended fiscal year 2014 funding through Dec. 11. As of International Trade Today's deadline, the bill is hung up by negotiations over non-appropriations policies tacked onto the bill, called “riders” in congressional parlance, many observers say. When asked last week whether the appropriations bill would include a country-of-origin labeling rider, Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said the chamber is open to considering a range of riders. Shelby declined to comment on any trade-related riders, but said in an Dec. 8 interview he is trying to “crystallize” the compromise as quickly as possible. “Today is Monday,” said Shelby. “I’d like to get out of here by Thursday.” The Senate is scheduled to go on holiday recess after Dec. 11, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has threatened to keep the chamber open through the following week. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., also said on Dec. 8 he did not believe the Trade Adjustment Assistance would be tacked onto the omnibus bill either.