House Ways and Means Committee Trade Subcommittee Chairman Adrian Smith, R-Neb., and Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., introduced the Undertaking Negotiations on Investment and Trade for Economic Dynamism (United) Act, a bill that directs the administration to begin negotiations for a comprehensive free trade agreement within 180 days of passage.
Very little of a hearing on customs modernization focused on the issues CBP and the trade have focused on as they work on a modernization proposal. The agency and traders are talking about new kinds of advance data, expedited release for trusted traders, better harmonization of data requests from partner government agencies and CBP, and data sharing from CBP with rights holders on intellectual property violations, among other changes.
Eighteen months after a senator launched a discussion draft on customs modernization (see 2111030035), the House Ways and Means Committee is beginning its examination of how to shape a bill to update CBP's authorities.
Three House Communications Subcommittee priorities drew equal attention during a Tuesday hearing with NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson: leaders’ push for a wide-ranging spectrum legislative package, oversight of federal broadband spending, and renewed Hill interest in reauthorizing the agency’s mandate with an eye to addressing future policy issues. The hearing was partly a curtain-raiser for the Commerce Committee’s planned Wednesday markup of the newly filed Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (HR-3565) and six broadband measures House Communications approved last week (see 2305170037).
President Joe Biden’s decision to simultaneously announce his intended pick Monday of former NTIA acting Administrator Anna Gomez to the long-vacant fifth FCC seat and his renomination of sitting Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks, as expected (see 2305180067 and 2305220020), is likely to speed Senate confirmation for all three candidates, said congressional officials and communications policy observers in interviews. There’s not a hard timeline for Senate consideration of the trio, but a Commerce Committee confirmation hearing is likely sometime in June and some stakeholders said they will push the chamber to approve all three before the start of the August recess.
Walmart said the FTC doesn’t, and can’t, deny the questions the retailer highlighted in its motion to certify for interlocutory appeal the district court’s denial of Walmart’s motion to dismiss the agency’s enforcement action “strike at the heart of the FTC’s legal authority and the proper interpretation of key provisions of the FTC Act.” Walmart filed its reply Thursday (docket 1:22-cv-03372) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago in support of its bid to challenge the constitutionality of the FTC’s litigation powers before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific are trying to pass legislation to give the president the ability to respond to economic coercion of allies, but Chair Young Kim, R-Calif., asked witnesses at a subcommittee hearing she convened to advise what else could be done to stand up to China's economic aggression.
An FCC draft NPRM, released Thursday, on the 42 GHz band seeks comment on three versions of a shared licensing approach. A proposed NPRM on facilitating the launch of next-generation 911 is a follow-up to a National Association of State 911 Administrators' petition seeking a rulemaking or notice of inquiry to fully implement NG911 (see 2110190066 and 2201200043), a draft makes clear. The FCC also released a draft NPRM proposing to strengthen robocall and robotext rules. All are scheduled for commissioner votes at the June 8 meeting. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel unveiled the agenda Wednesday (see 2305170059).
President Joe Biden is all but certain to nominate former NTIA acting Administrator Anna Gomez to fill the long-vacant fifth FCC seat, but the timing of a formal announcement remained uncertain Thursday despite a Bloomberg report implying it was imminent, congressional officials and communications policy observers told us. Gomez’s confirmation would give the FCC a 3-2 Democratic majority after more than two years of a 2-2 tie. Previous candidate Gigi Sohn asked Biden in March to withdraw her name after her often-contentious Senate confirmation process repeatedly stalled (see 2303070082).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ordered Judge Pauline Newman to not publicly disclose the names of witnesses in the court's ongoing investigation on whether the judge is fit to continue serving on the bench. Releasing the order publicly along with all other court orders and letters in the probe, per Newman's request, the appellate court said that Newman and her counsel remain bound by the court's confidentiality order in the investigation regarding future orders and filings.