The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has issued a notice announcing that it has prepared an evaluation of the animal health status of Suffolk and Norfolk Counties, England, relative to the H5N1 subtype of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Comments are due by June 8, 2009. APHIS press release available here. (D/N APHIS-2009-0015, FR Pub 05/07/09, available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-10630.pdf)
"Daily Update on Capitol Hill Trade Actions" is a regular feature of International Trade Today. The following are brief summaries of recent Capitol Hill actions.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has posted a ballot sheet for Commission vote by May 8, 2009 on an emergency stay of enforcement of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA1) "tracking label" requirement for children's products.2
The following are the trade-related hearings scheduled for May 4-9, 2009, which are posted in the Congressional Record once a week:
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has issued a release stating it will begin a pilot program on May 1, 2009, initially open to those entities currently participating in CBP's expedited border release program, Automated Line Release (ALR)/Border Release Advance Screening and Selectivity (BRASS), and whose products require a Lacey Act declaration during the current phase of enforcement. This pilot program will test the feasibility of collecting the information required using a periodic "blanket" declaration, with subsequent reconciliation reports. Entities currently participating in ALR or BRASS will be able to choose whether to remain active in the expedited program and participate in this pilot program or be removed from the expedited program. (See ITT's Online Archives or 05/01/09 news, 09050105, for BP summary.) (Release, available at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/lacey_act/downloads/PilotProgramAnnoucement.pdf)
Self-described geeks had their say on U.S. cybersecurity policy at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing Friday, and their recommendations boiled down to: Make business and personal security cheap and easy to implement. The raging debate among House and Senate committees of where to locate primary authority for cybersecurity in the federal government is a secondary matter, most said.
According to an email from Trucking.org, on April 29, 2009, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued its final ruling preliminarily enjoining certain Long Beach and Los Angeles Port Concession Plan requirements of the Clean Truck Program. Trucking.org states that the final ruling is essentially the same as the April 27, 2009 draft ruling (but with additional language set forth in footnotes 4, 16 & 21, addressing the ports' discretionary decision-making power, concession filing fees and the LA incentive payment program, respectively). For email copy of ruling, send requests to documents@brokerpower.com .
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has issued a final rule, effective April 13, 2009, to carry out the purposes of Executive Order 13382, ''Blocking Property of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators and Their Supporters" under which sanctions have been in place since June 29, 2005.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the World Health Organization (WHO) have posted updated information on Swine Influenza A (H1N1).
The drumbeat for a primary White House role in cybersecurity got louder Tuesday. Democrat Tom Carper of Delaware, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Federal Financial Management Subcommittee, was scheduled to offer a bill that would create a White House cybersecurity office as part of a larger update of the Federal Information Security Management Act. That jibes with a Commerce Department- oriented cybersecurity measure by Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. But it clashes with promised legislation from Senate Homeland Security Committee leaders. (See separate report in this issue.)