On October 12, 2011, the Senate failed to closed debate on a “motion to proceed” to consideration of the President’s jobs bill1 (which effectively blocked further consideration of the bill at that time). Prior to the Senate's consideration of the bill, 24 associations sent a letter to House and Senate leaders expressing opposition to the Buy American provisions in the President's jobs bill.
On October 11, 2011, the Senate Finance Committee approved pending trade nominations for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Commerce Department, and International Trade Commission. These nominees must still be confirmed by the Senate.
On October 6, 2011, Senators Akaka (D-HI) and Feinstein (D-CA) introduced the Safeguarding American Agriculture Act of 2011. The bill would raise the priority of the agriculture mission within U.S. Customs and Border Protection by establishing an Office of Agriculture Inspection with its own Assistant Commissioner and requiring CBP to develop plans to improve agriculture specialist recruitment and retention.
The following are the trade-related hearings scheduled for October 10-15, 2011:
On October 6, 2011, Congressman Mike Turner (R-OH) introduced the Trade Law Enforcement Act (H.R. 3112), which he states would utilize a Commerce Department complaint process to provide U.S. companies with a lower cost, less complex path to the USTR's initiation of a Section 301 investigation on market access barriers.
On October 3, 2011, the following bills were introduced:
During the October 4, 2011 House Intelligence Committee hearing on cyber threats, Chairman Mike Rogers (R) stated that cyber espionage, especially from China, is threatening major losses of U.S. private sector intellectual property (IP). The Office of Management and Budget has previously estimated that the number of cyber incidents affecting federal agencies increased 39% in 2010. McAfee Inc., a computer security firm, has also noted the cyber targeting of U.S. firms for IP theft in a recently published report.
On October 6, 2011, the Senate agreed to a motion to close further debate on S. 1619, the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act (S. 1619), which would establish a new framework for identifying misaligned currencies and require the Administration to take action if countries fail to correct such misalignment. S. 1619 would also clarify that countervailing duty law can address currency valuation.
The following are the trade-related hearings scheduled for October 4-8, 2011:
On October 5, 2011, the Senate continued its consideration of the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act (S. 1619), which would establish a new framework for identifying misaligned currencies and require the Administration to take action if countries fail to correct such misalignment. S. 1619 would also clarify that countervailing duty law can address currency valuation.