Grassley Says Some Senators Against Unanimous Consent for USMCA Technical Fixes
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the technical fixes to USMCA need to be done, and he hopes a technical fixes bill can pass the Senate by unanimous consent. The bill would allow refunds of merchandise processing fees in post-entry reconciliation (see 2007070056) and may also change treatment of foreign-trade zones, a change that those zones say is not a technical fix at all, but a policy change (see 2007200021).
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At this point, unanimous consent is out of reach, as some senators have said they wouldn't agree to passing the bill that way. “I know there's been some people dragging [their] feet on it. I don’t know if whether they're doing it because they don't like some part of the technical fix, or whether they're doing it to get something bigger,” Grassley said on a conference call with reporters Aug. 4. He said that if it can't be done by unanimous consent, the bill should get a ride on a continuing resolution, which would have to pass in September, or on an omnibus appropriation bill, which is often passed in Congress just before they go home for Christmas.