Top Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee and Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, along with Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, have introduced a reauthorization bill for the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism. The bill includes changes that would improve CBP program management and information sharing and collaboration with industry.
The leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee from both parties is asking for more data from the Food and Drug Administration, and is requesting a Government Accountability Office study on inspections of foreign drug manufacturing facilities.
The Congressional Research Service gave a broad overview of the potential applications and regulations involved in blockchain and international trade, in a report updated June 25. Among other things, the CRS discusses the ongoing exploration of blockchain uses within CBP. There remains much uncertainty as to where regulators will fit in, the CRS said. "Congress may conduct oversight or hold hearings on regulatory uses of blockchain for increasing the efficiency and security of customs and border control, food and product safety supply chain traceability, or other applications," it said. "Congress may also conduct oversight to review how regulatory agencies are applying existing laws and regulations to blockchain or to study how other countries are applying and regulating the use of the technology. Congress may review existing legislation to identify barriers to the technology, such as statutory requirements for paper documentation."
The American Association of Port Authorities and 100 other ports, labor unions and shippers’ associations called on Congress to adopt long-term funding legislation that would guarantee full use of Harbor Maintenance Tax funds for port maintenance. In a letter to congressional leadership dated June 26, AAPA said legislators should “enact a comprehensive solution to fix the HMT for good.” An agreement reached by AAPA in 2018 “after years of debate” offers a comprehensive plan that would provide for “full spending of prior year Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund revenues according to a framework that ports agreed would be fair and equitable,” the letter said. “It makes maintenance the highest priority, provides protections to address small port and regional port needs, provides increasing equity to large HMT donors and acknowledges Congress’s priority to provide support to energy transfer ports,” AAPA said.
Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., introduced a bill that would amend the International Emergency Economic Powers Act so that it can't be used to impose tariffs. When President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on all Mexican imports unless it stopped Central American migration to the U.S., it was expected he would use the IEEPA statute to do so. In the past, IEEPA has only been used to impose sanctions, not tariffs. “Tariffs are not the appropriate tool to deal with the situation on the border, and IEEPA was never intended to be a mechanism for slapping tariffs on a foreign country, especially our allies," DelBene said in a press release June 27, the day the bill was introduced.
Twenty-seven freshmen from around the country, Democrats on the left and in the center, have sent a letter to the U.S. trade representative telling him that while his NAFTA rewrite "includes some important improvements," it also has "unfinished business [that] would perpetuate NAFTA's damage."
Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., introduced a bill, the Reclaiming Congressional Trade Authority Act of 2019, that would require that any tariffs implemented on national security grounds -- whether through Section 232 or another mechanism, such as the national emergency on immigration -- be approved by Congress. The bill, introduced June 25, would allow tariffs to be in place for 120 days without congressional approval. It has a Senate companion bill, S. 899, introduced by Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.
The day after the House working group had its first meeting to hammer out changes to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the renegotiated NAFTA, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., a freshman Democrat from a swing district, one Republican and 12 other Democrats introduced a bill that seeks to shorten the biologics exclusivity period in U.S. law to five years. The new NAFTA requires Mexico to raise its exclusivity period from five to 10 years, and Canada to raise its period from eight to 10 years. Current U.S. law is 12 years.
Lawmakers should provide more funding for CBP officers, trade groups and companies said in a June 17 letter to appropriators. "We urge you to support the Administration’s request for supplemental appropriations to cover CBP operations for the remainder of this fiscal year," said the groups, which include the Border Trade Alliance, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "U.S. businesses rely on the safe and efficient movement of goods and people across our borders. However, recent activities by CBP in responding to the situation at the southern border are having enormous impacts on this flow of goods and people." Without more funding, businesses are worried "about increasingly serious disruptions to CBP’s critical customs and security work, and to the movement of people and goods at our borders" and ports of entry.
For weeks, Republicans in the House have been complaining that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn't moving fast enough to bring a vote to the floor on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. "USMCA is being held hostage by career politicians in Washington who are hell-bent on preventing President Trump from getting a win. A delay in approval of this agreement will hit the wallets of family farms in Illinois and across the country. The agriculture community is losing out because political gamesmanship is being placed in front of their interests," Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., wrote in an op-ed published June 18 in the Washington Examiner.