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:
The House passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (here) on Oct. 28. The legislation, which sets spending levels for the next two years, doesn't include any trade-related provisions. Lawmakers originally floated the bill late on Oct. 26. The Senate began debate on the bill on Oct. 29, and a procedural vote on the legislation will come on Oct. 30 at the latest, said Senate Republican leadership. The White House gave its support to the agreement, which was brokered in secret over recent weeks, on Oct. 28. "The administration urges the Congress to pass this bipartisan agreement and looks forward to working with the Congress to enact responsible, full‑year [fiscal year] 2016 appropriations – without ideological riders – based on this agreement in order to continue growing the nation's economy and creating jobs," said the White House.
The diversion of $4 billion in customs user fees to unrelated transportation projects in the six-year Senate highway bill would damage CBP’s ability to increase its staffing to authorized levels, the National Treasury Employees Union said in an Oct. 28 statement (here). House Democrats recently lashed into that use of the fees, arguing they should be applied to facilitation and border functions (see 1510150029). “Sufficient CBP staffing must be provided to ensure security and mitigate long wait times at our nation’s air, sea and land ports of entry,” said new NTEU President Tony Reardon in the statement. “There is perhaps no greater roadblock to legitimate trade and travel efficiency than the shortage of staff at the ports. Understaffed ports lead to long delays for the traveling public and in commercial lanes as cargo waits to enter U.S. commerce. Those delays result in real losses to the U.S. economy.” CBP has struggled to fill the additional hires (see 1504230030). The House introduced a long-term bill in recent days, but Ways and Means lawmakers haven't yet provided funding sources for the legislation (see 1510260009). The Senate gave the go-ahead on a three-week highway stopgap on Oct. 28 in a move that sends the legislation to President Barack Obama.