Reliable investment, updated technologies and more capacity are necessary for the U.S. freight system to continue nurturing international trade, industry representatives told members of a new House transportation panel April 24. Higher funding was mentioned by everyone who testified before the recently formed panel on 21st Century Freight Transportation (see 13041726). Funding is “woefully short” of what is required to modernize the U.S. port network, South Carolina Ports Authority President Jim Newsome said in written testimony. The lack of funding impedes future freight mobility, especially with the growth of U.S. exports and the global shipping fleet. This year will bring the largest injection of new container capacity into the global container fleet, Newsome said. And while there have been some investments in U.S. ports, foreign ports are still “widely recognized” to have more capacity, he said.
A bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority bill should appear in the Senate by June, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said during an April 24 hearing. Baucus, who announced his retirement April 22, also called for a renewal of Trade Adjustment Assistance and serious work on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.“I do intend to double down,” Baucus said, referring to the TPP, the topic of the hearing. “We’re going to get this thing done.”
Lawmakers introduced a new bill April 23 designed to streamline the duty suspension process and prevent “backdoor earmarks” within Miscellaneous Tariff Bills (MTB). The new bill, titled the Duty Suspension Act, was initially introduced last year (see 12061429). Senate Finance Committee members Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., the original authors of the bill, also reintroduced it. Read the bill text (here).
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., will not run for reelection next year. Baucus, who has served in the Senate for 35 years, announced his retirement April 23. The decision was made “after much consideration and many conversations” with his family, Baucus said in a statement. For the remainder of his term, Baucus said he will focus on tax reform, debt reduction and pushing "job-creating trade agreements" through the Senate. He has served as Finance Committee Chairman since 2007. After Baucus, the senior-most Democrat on the Committee is Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., since Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., will also be retiring at the end of his term.
Recent trade-related bills introduced in Congress include:
CBP will begin taking over land ports-of-entry facilities this year, a move that will facilitate a “faster delivery of service,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a Senate committee April 18. DHS will work with the General Services Administration to delegate control of the facilities to CBP; because the buildings are “mission-oriented 24/7 operational assets of CBP, as well as national trade and transportation infrastructure,” they are different from the other federal buildings GSA manages, Napolitano said in written testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Napolitano testified on DHS’s proposed budget for 2014. She also made the rounds before the House Homeland Security Committee (here). Under the budget, CBP will also gain authority over the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology. The agency is also working with the Department of Agriculture to evaluate “financial models to achieve full cost recovery for agricultural inspectional services provided by CBP,” Napolitano said.
The addition of more than 3,000 CBP officers in President Obama’s 2014 budget proposal will alleviate the agency’s “significant” staffing shortage and help facilitate trade, CBP officials said before the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee April 17. The officials were testifying about the agency’s 2014 proposed budget, and once again warned of sequestration’s “disruptive” effect on CBP’s mission.
Examining the current state of freight transportation in the U.S. -- and how to link together movement of goods between land, sea and air -- is the task of a new House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure panel, announced April 16. The special panel will serve for six months, beginning with its first hearing on April 24, and will provide recommendations on improving movements between highways, ports, inland waterways, railroads, air carriers and pipelines, Committee Chairman Bill Schuster, R-Pa., said in an announcement on the panel. Congress passed a surface transportation bill last year, but it did not include specific mandates for coordination across all types of transportation (see 12070241).
Government officials and industry representatives cautioned against changes to International Trade Commission Section 337 investigations -- warning of negative consequences that could lead to expensive, lengthy cases -- at a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing April 16. The hearing focused on proposed efforts to suppress Non-Practicing Entities and Patent Assertions Entities from getting Exclusion Orders under Section 337, including calls from industry to amend the criteria for qualifying as a U.S. industry that can cause a Section 337 investigation. The Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet held a similar hearing last year (see 12071901).
Sequestration will force the Federal Maritime Commission to furlough employees for about 10-14 days due to sequestration, which, when combined with other sequestration-induced budget squeezes, limits the commission’s ability to oversee the shipping industry and ensure compliance, Chairman Mario Cordero told the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation April 16.