On September 20, 2010, the following executive communications were received by Congress:
On September 20, 2010, the Senate continued its consideration of S. 3454, the National Defense Authorization Act, which would authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2011 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year. The Senate is expected to continue its consideration on September 21, 2010.
On September 20, 2010, Senator Schumer (D) called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to halt the practice of Chinese growers mislabeling their products as “organic.” In addition, Schumer called on USDA to work with the International Trade Commission to develop trade codes for tracking the international movement of organic products.
On September 20, 2010, the Senate received the following nominations:
The Food Safety Accountability Act of 2010 (S. 3767), which was introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Leahy (D) and three co-sponsors1 on September 13, 2010, would establish criminal penalties for “knowing” violations relating to food that is misbranded or adulterated.
The following are the trade-related hearings scheduled for September 20-25, 2010:
The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has identified more than $2.7 billion in savings that have been or can be realized through spending cuts in programs under its jurisdiction. The findings are contained in a report that was transmitted to the House Speaker on September 15, 2010.
On September 17, 2010, Congressman Michaud (D), a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, praised the support of the Administration for a permanent increase in Maine and Vermont’s Interstate truck weight limits. Michaud’s statement notes that while the Administration’s support for this is positive, some in the House and Senate remain adamantly opposed to this change, and he will work with the Vermont and Maine delegations to make sure it becomes law.
On September 16, 2010, the following trade-related bills were introduced:
The Redundancy Elimination and Enhanced Performance for Preparedness Grants Act (H.R. 3980), which would identify and eliminate redundant reporting requirements and developing meaningful performance metrics for homeland security preparedness grants, was reported in the Senate, with an amendment in the nature of a substitute (S. Rept. 111-291).