A bipartisan group of House lawmakers blocked a number of amendments to reform the Export-Import Bank during Nov. 4 debate on the House’s highway bill. House Democratic leadership applauded those defeats. The Senate legislation contains Ex-Im reauthorization (see 1507300052), and House Republican leadership plans to complete the highway debate and move to conference on Nov. 5, said the office of Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Conference is the inter-chamber process of resolving differences between two bills. “With legislation to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank included in the highway bill, House and Senate conferees can now move forward on completing a final version that will protect export-driven jobs,” said Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md. But Hoyer urged the Senate to follow the House in passing standalone Ex-Im legislation. The House approved Ex-Im authorization in late October (see 1510290073). “We need not wait for conferees to meet,” said Hoyer. “I urge [Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.] to bring to the Senate Floor the standalone Export-Import Bank reauthorization that the House passed last week by a vote of 313-118 so it can reach the President’s desk without delay.” Current highway funding mandates expire on Nov. 20.
The House passed legislation on Nov. 2 to improve U.S. collaboration with global partners to combat wildlife trafficking. The Global Anti-Poaching Act, HR-2494 (here), directs the administration, led by the State Department, to report on the largest trafficking countries globally. The bill also boosts training of wildlife specialists in the U.S. and abroad. "This vital legislation holds foreign governments accountable by ‘naming and shaming’ the worst violators and adds greater consequences for traffickers in this illicit trade," said Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., in a statement following passage. "And it presses the Administration to continue to provide important security assistance to African park rangers.”
The House Homeland Security Committee voted Nov. 4 to advance the Strengthening Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Coordination in Our Ports Act (HR-3878), sending the bill to the full House on a unanimous voice vote. HR-3878 (here) would require DHS to take “a more proactive approach to cybersecurity” at U.S. ports, said Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif. The bill would require DHS to increase National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center collaboration with maritime and port security stakeholders, including creating a working group to develop plans to address port-specific cybersecurity vulnerabilities. House Homeland Security approved an amendment to HR-3878 from Rep. Dan Donovan, R-N.Y., that would require vessels and port facilities to conduct a cybersecurity assessment as part of their requirements under the 2002 Maritime Transportation Security Act. The markup came a week after the Senate passed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S-754) 74-21, setting up what is anticipated to be a lengthy conference to reconcile that bill with the House-passed Protecting Cyber Networks Act (HR-1560). An industry lobbyist told us language from HR-3878 could potentially make it into a conference information sharing bill.
Lawmakers should permanently extend CBP’s donation and reimbursement pilots that allow private parties to fund land purchases and provide real property at U.S. ports of entry, said John Wagner, deputy assistant commissioner at CBP, alongside other stakeholders at a Nov. 4 congressional hearing. The public/private partnerships provide critical lifelines to ports and port communities as lawmakers fail to authorize enough funding to keep pace with growing trade, said those that testified before the House Homeland Security Border Subcommittee.
The Republican Steering Committee, a group comprised of the top GOP lawmakers in the House, elected Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, the next chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. That vote follows the ascendance of Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to the speakership in recent days. The full chamber still needs to ratify Ryan for the post (see 1510280042). Brady, who beat Ways and Means trade subcommittee chief Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio for the position, chaired the trade subcommittee until 2013. In announcing his bid nearly 10 days ago (here), Brady's office touted his efforts to pass implementation legislation for free trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia. Proponents of Customs Reauthorization have said Tiberi was likely to be more intent on locking down a Customs Reauthorization compromise (see 1510290043). Tiberi congratulated Brady on the vote as did many other lawmakers including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Ways and Means and Brady's office declined to comment.
The Senate passed 64-35 the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 in the early hours of Oct. 30. That vote comes as the U.S. edged toward a Nov. 3 deadline to lift the national debt ceiling. Lawmakers introduced the agreement on Oct. 26 (see 1510290016).
Funding shortfalls are hampering CBP’s ability to ensure nuclear and radiological material doesn’t enter U.S. territory, said a representative of the American Association of Port Authorities in testimony to the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation on Oct. 27 (here). Port authorities across the country are criticizing the CBP’s failure to effectively update radiation port monitors (RPMs) at U.S. ports, said Joseph Lawless, director of maritime security at the Massachusetts Port Authority.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, a chief supporter of the Export-Import Bank, urged Senate lawmakers on Oct. 29 to take up and vote on HR-597 (here), the House-passed legislation to authorize the credit agency through 2019 (see 1510140015), but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., objected. Cantwell tried to invoke unanimous consent for the bill, a procedural tool that sidesteps debate. Only one objection blocks attempts for unanimous consent.
A group of House Democrats criticized a recent U.S. Trade Representative report outlining its transparency measures at an Oct. 29 event on Capitol Hill, urging the Office of USTR to immediately release the legal text for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The lawmakers, led by trade critics Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, said Congress and the public must be able to verify the Obama administration’s pitch on TPP. USTR Michael Froman pledged to disclose the text by mid-November (see 1510130021).
Lawmakers introduced the following trade-related bill since International Trade Today's last legislative update: