The House is scheduled to consider HR-4152 (here), a bill to provide aid to Ukraine and broaden sanctions on those that destabilize the country, on April 1 under suspended rules. The Senate passed the legislation on March 28 with overwhelming support (see 14032817).
The Senate Finance Committee will hold a markup April 3 on a draft legislative package to extend tax credits that expired at the end of 2013, the committee said in an April 1 press release. The package could potentially serve as a vehicle to push a number of pieces of trade legislation, industry officials and analysts have recently said (see 14032429). House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich, pledged to analyze all the tax exemptions and present an independent package.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman of the Subcommittee on Trade, Devin Nunes, R-Calif., formally announced his intent to replace outgoing Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich. Rogers announced on March 28 he would step down as Intelligence chairman (here), a position appointed by the speaker of the house. A Nunes spokesman did not immediately respond for comment. The trade subcommittee chairmanship is appointed by the full Ways and Means Committee chairman.
The House and Senate passed separate pieces of aid and sanctions legislation on March 27 to address the recent turmoil in Ukraine, with overwhelming support in both chambers. Although the bills differ in specific language and provisions, they both would broaden the ability to impose sanctions on individuals that destabilize Ukraine or contribute to corruption in the country. The Obama administration has already sanctioned 31 Russian and Ukrainian officials in the past two weeks (see 14032024). The House passed HR-4278 with a 399-19 roll call. The Senate passed HR-4152 with 98 votes. Although the House was expected to take up the Senate bill on March 28 (here), House leadership chose to not put in on the floor (here).
U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman will testify before the House Ways and Means committee on April 3 at 9:30 a.m., Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., announced on March 27. Froman will then testify before the Senate Finance committee at 2:00 p.m. on the same day, said the Finance committee. Ways and Means Chairman Camp intends to address pending trade pacts, along with the Trade Promotion Authority bill, according to a committee press release. The legislation continues to be hampered by Democratic opposition in both the House and Senate (see 14032429). The hearing will also focus on trade enforcement priorities, the committee said. “We have the opportunity to complete new trade agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, negotiations with the European Union, as well as the Trade in Services Agreement negotiations and other important trade initiatives,” said Camp. “However, trade promotion authority is essential to concluding all of these efforts, and our bipartisan, bicameral bill empowers Congress and provides important direction from Congress to get these agreements done right. I call on the President to actively engage to secure broad bipartisan support for this bill.”
Recent trade-related bills introduced in Congress include:
The House and Senate on March 27 both readied to vote on legislation that would expand Ukraine sanctions and aid, but without reforms to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The House Ukraine Support Act (here), which urges expansion of sanctions on officials that are contributing to the destabilization of Ukraine, passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 25 and was docketed for a March 27 vote. The Support for the Sovereignty, Integrity, Democracy, and Economic Stability of Ukraine Act passed the Foreign Relations committee on March 13 (here), but Republican opposition to the IMF reform provisions in the bill caused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to withdraw consideration of the legislation (here). The Senate will now consider another House bill, HR-4152 (here) on March 27, paving the way for Congress to send Ukraine legislation to the president’s desk in the coming days. The Obama administration has already sanctioned 31 Russian and Ukrainian officials in the past ten days (see 14032024). The administration on March 27 continued to insist that IMF reform is the appropriate course of action.
Recent trade-related bills introduced in Congress include:
The inclusion of strict copyright enforcement provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would threaten free speech online and U.S. innovation, by requiring providers to disclose personal information to authorities without privacy safeguards, said more than 25 technology companies in a March 20 letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore. The companies voiced concerns with "opaque" trade negotiations and pushed Wyden not to move forward with Trade Promotion Authority legislation, also known as fast track, for TPP. Reddit, Imgur and Thoughtworks endorsed the letter along with other companies. “The trade negotiation process has been anything but transparent," it said. "Our industry, and the users that we serve, need to be at the table from the beginning to design policies that serve more than the narrow commercial interests of the few large corporations who have been invited to participate." Wyden should not pass "any version of fast track or trade promotion authority, or approve any mechanism that would facilitate the passage of trade agreements containing digital copyright enforcement provisions,” the letter said. Wyden has not taken a public position on Trade Promotion Authority since taking over the committee in February (see 14022001).
New lobbyist registrations on trade-related issues include: