Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., announced on Nov. 4 Jason Park joined the committee majority staff as international trade counsel focusing on Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), customs and other issues. Baucus has pressed the need to pass TAA in conjunction with Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) (see 13072513). Baucus said he preferred TPA should pass by the end of 2013, while speaking at an Oct. 30 committee hearing on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (see 13103107). Park joined the committee from the Senate Budget Committee majority staff, where he worked on trade and tax issues as revenues counsel. Prior to that, he served as legislative counsel for Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash.
The Senate Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), S. 601, and the sister House Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA), H.R. 3080, will modernize and preserve critical infrastructure, while ensuring retention of hundreds of thousands of jobs, a group of labor associations said in a letter submitted to Congress on Nov. 1. The House passed H.R. 3080 (here) on Oct. 23 with an overwhelming bipartisan vote, after the Senate passed its version of the bill, S. 601 (here), in May (see 13102428). The Senate on Nov. 4 appointed eight conferees.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) should investigate “widespread and systemic abuse” of overtime payments at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., in a Nov. 1 letter to GAO Comptroller General Gene Dodaro (here). The abuse may be responsible for double such payments, considered Administratively Uncontrollable Overtime (AUO), for Customs Border Protection (CBP) personnel since DHS officials began investigations into the abuse in 2008, said Shaheen. Shaheen demanded GAO officials investigate the following:
New lobbyist registrations on trade-related issues include:
The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee gave voice vote approval on Oct. 31 to the nomination of Wanda Felton to serve another term as first vice president of the Export-Import Bank, a committee spokesman said on Nov. 1. Felton’s next term would expire on Jan. 20, 2017.
Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo., reintroduced on Oct. 31 the Affordable Footwear Act, S. 1633, along with a bipartisan group of six additional Senate co-sponsors. Cantwell has previously introduced Affordable Footwear Act legislation (here), most recently in 2011 (see 11052725). The bill eliminates a "hidden, regressive tax" on low-priced children’s footwear and some hiking boots that costs U.S. industry $800 million in duties, said the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA) in an Oct. 31 statement (here). “Unlike many other issues on Congress’s radar, the Affordable Footwear Act has broad bipartisan support and is non-controversial,” said FDRA President Matt Priest in the statement. “We are hopeful that this bill can be included in a trade package before the end of 2013.” Lawmakers and industry leaders have expressed support for the passage of an omnibus trade package in the coming months (see 13081212).
Recent trade-related bills introduced in Congress include:
The failure of Congress to pass a 2013 Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) is causing American manufacturers to pay “exorbitantly high” duties on the importation of component goods, said Grover Norquist, President of the Americans for Tax Reform, arguing that MTB provisions do not constitute earmarks. The Senate moratorium on earmarks has impeded progress on the chamber’s introduction of an MTB bill (see 13101607). There is no federal money spent on the provisions, said Norquist in a Oct. 29 letter to lawmakers. “They’re completely transparent and widely publicized on the Congressional website. Every single one is thoroughly vetted by the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Department of Commerce and other U.S. government agencies,” said Norquist. “And while earmarks benefit only a tiny few, MTB tariff-tax cuts provide tax relief to a wide swath of U.S. industry and help keep U.S. jobs right here in America.” Norquist urged passage of U.S. Jobs Creation and Manufacturing Competiveness Act of 2013, H.R. 2708 (here), introduced in July.
The House leadership should shelve focus on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) due to the lost domestic jobs and exacerbated deficit that will result from the final pact, said Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, on the House floor on Oct. 29. The House should instead adopt the Kaptur-sponsored Balancing Trade Act, H.R. 192 (here), she said. The legislation would require the administration to outline actions to balance the trade deficit with every country with which the U.S. has a trade deficit, Kaptur said.
A group of House lawmakers will support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) through a new caucus, said Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., in a press release. The caucus, named the Friends of the TPP, is co-chaired by Congressmen Charles Boustany, R-La., Ron Kind, D-Wis., Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and Reichert.