The House Homeland Security Committee has added Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., the committee announced Nov. 29. Bacon will work on the Border and Maritime Security and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection subcommittees.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in a letter urged the FDA to reconsider its delay of compliance deadlines for its rules deeming e-cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco part of the FDA’s regulatory purview, saying the ongoing postponement of enforcement is “devastating” to “the public health of our national community.” The FDA in August announced the delay of premarket review compliance deadlines from 2017 and 2018, depending on the e-cigarette product and type of submission, to 2021 and 2022 (see 1708090020). “The FDA delayed crucial regulatory compliance deadlines for tobacco and e-cigarette products as outlined in the 2016 deeming rule” (see 1605050011), Schumer said in a statement. “When fully implemented it will provide consumers with additional health and safety warnings and require manufacturers to demonstrate that given products comply with health standards set by law.”
While the U.S. Postal Service bilateral data sharing agreements with some foreign counterparts have improved data and targeting procedures for inbound U.S. shipments, information shared by those overseas agencies is sometimes inaccurate or incomplete, the top Republican and Democrat of the Senate Homeland Security Committee said in a Nov. 20 letter to several U.S. agencies. Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and ranking member Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., are seeking several points of information regarding executive branch efforts to curb imports of opioids and opioid analogs, including the total number of packages containing opioids, and “total amount of opioids by quantity,” seized by CBP, broken down by carrier -- such as UPS, FedEx, DHL and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Nov. 21 released its fiscal year 2018 Homeland Security spending legislation that would fund CBP at $13.5 billion total, $364 million below the agency’s budget request, the committee announced. The bill also recommends $38 million to support ACE core functionality and another $5 million for ACE program enhancements, according to an explanatory statement of the bill. “Full automation of CBP Form 214 [Application for Foreign-Trade Zone Admission and/or Status Designation] … is an example of an enhancement that would benefit both the Federal and industry interests,” the explanatory statement says. The House passed its version of FY18 appropriations legislation in September (see 1709150052).
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in a Nov. 21 letter called on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to maintain the current ban on African elephant trophy imports, as potential action to lift the prohibition remains under Fish and Wildlife Service review. She said she is “deeply concerned” by a Nov. 17 FWS Federal Register notice announcing a finding that killing trophy animals in Zimbabwe would enhance the survival of the African elephant. FWS last week announced a policy to reopen imports of elephant hunting trophies from Zimbabwe for animals killed on or after Jan. 21, 2016, before Zinke said his department would re-evaluate the policy (see 1711200030). Last week, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., also called for the Trump administration to continue the import ban (see 1711170034).
The Senate Financial Services and General Government draft appropriations bill for fiscal year 2018 would prevent funds from being used to implement mandatory standards for recreational off-highway vehicles (ROVs) until the Consumer Product Safety Commission completes a study with the National Academy of Sciences. Released Nov. 20, the legislation directs the study to examine whether regulations proposed in 2014 (see 1411180014) would prevent off-road rollovers and the degree to which the rule would reduce such occurrences, among other things.
The U.S. should bring more World Trade Organization cases against China, publish a list of Chinese companies engaged in intellectual property theft and unfair trade practices to inform potential “litigants” of possible “legal targets,” and take measures to better inform U.S. companies and regulators of Chinese state-owned entities in the U.S., a China and trade analyst told senators Nov. 16. Hudson Institute Center for Chinese Strategy Director Michael Pillsbury recommended that the State Department lead implementation of those policies, in written testimony for a Senate Foreign Relations East Asia Subcommittee hearing. In another statement, fellow testifier Max Baucus, former U.S. ambassador to China, lamented the U.S.’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, saying it was a “huge” economic and geopolitical mistake and implying it would cede trade to China. He added, “It’s no wonder that the remaining TPP countries are going ahead without the United States.”
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., on Nov. 17, in a statement urged the Trump administration to withdraw the Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to allow imports of elephant hunting trophies from Zimbabwe for animals killed on or after Jan. 21, 2016 (see 1711160018), until that country’s political situation stabilizes. “When carefully regulated, conservation hunts can benefit habitats and wildlife populations,” Royce said. “That said, this is the wrong move at the wrong time. Today Zimbabwe is in economic and political crisis. American citizens in the country are advised to go outdoors only when necessary. In this moment of turmoil, I have zero confidence that the regime -- which for years has promoted corruption at the highest levels -- is properly managing and regulating conservation programs.” Royce added that he’s “not convinced” that elephant populations in the subject area warrant “overconcentration measures,” and that elephants and other big game in Africa are “blood currency” for terrorist organizations and are being killed at an “alarming rate.”
The House Financial Services Committee on Nov. 15 advanced legislation that would repeal language in the Dodd-Frank Act requiring companies to report conflict minerals content in their products to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the committee announced. Introduced Nov. 3 by Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., the bill would remove a requirement that public companies disclose in annual SEC reports whether the firms source tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its nine neighboring countries, the committee said. The office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., didn’t comment on when the full House might vote on the legislation.
Lawmakers recently introduced the following trade-related bill: