After the Senate Parliamentarian ruled that six other committees besides Finance need to consider the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, five of those committees have scheduled hearings or meetings to deal with the implementing bill next week. The Budget and the Environment committees will take it up Jan. 14; the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and the Commerce committees will take it up Jan. 15; and the Foreign Relations Committee will take it up Jan. 16. If the Appropriations Committee were to also have a hearing next week, a vote could come the following week, but Appropriations has not scheduled a hearing.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he's been told it's going to take three or four days for six other Senate committees to clear the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement so that it can go to the floor for a vote. Whether it can come up the week of Jan. 21 will depend on whether the articles of impeachment have arrived by then, he noted.
President Donald Trump signed the bills funding the federal government through Sept. 30, along with a tax extenders package, before leaving Washington for Florida the evening of Dec. 20. The tax extenders included a provision that will continue the alcohol excise tax break in the Craft Beverage Modernization Act through the end of 2020 (see 1912170067). The Beer Institute hailed the extension with a press release that quoted Dan Kopman, CEO of Heavy Seas Beer in Baltimore, Maryland. “Excise tax relief has given brewers and beer importers of all sizes across the nation the ability to expand and grow, and I urge members of Congress to work together in the new year to make the excise tax rates in the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act permanent.”
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., the strongest free trade advocate in the Senate, said he doesn't know if Republicans will return to their traditional position as pro-free trade. In response to a question from the audience at the American Enterprise Institute Dec. 19, he said it depends on whether President Donald Trump is re-elected in 2020.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the committee will hold a mock markup of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on Jan. 7. “This markup will move us closer to ratifying USMCA in early 2020,” Grassley said Dec. 20. “Farmers, manufacturers and all American workers will soon be able to benefit from a stronger and modernized trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.”
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a bill Dec. 18 that would impose “wide-ranging sanctions” on Russian companies and people involved in Ukraine interference, human rights abuses and more, the committee said in a press release. The bill would also sanction Russian banks that support the government’s effort to undermine democracy, sanction investment in Russian liquefied natural gas projects, and impose sanctions on Russia’s cyber sector, sovereign debt, political figures and oligarchs. The bill would also sanction members of Russia’s shipbuilding sector that prohibit free navigation, and designate state-owned energy projects outside of Russia. The bill has strong bipartisan support and next heads to the Senate floor.
The end-of-the-year appropriations compromise worked out between the House and Senate will add tens of millions of dollars for trade enforcement and port technology. The bill, which is expected to pass the Senate by Dec. 20 and has already passed the House of Representatives, will also spend $54 million for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
A bipartisan resolution supporting the administration's desire to get reforms to the World Trade Organization, but also urging that the Geneva delegation work with other countries, passed the House Ways and Means Committee on Dec. 17. Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., a leader on free trade in the Democratic caucus, co-authored the bill. He told fellow committee members that he is talking to the Senate to see if they will raise a similar resolution.
A seven-year reauthorization for the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. will be included in the must-pass government spending package for 2020, according to a Dec. 16 press release from Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. Waters said she is “pleased” that the appropriations package includes the Ex-Im bank authorization, which will “benefit American workers, small businesses, and communities throughout the country.” House members and trade experts have advocated for the long term reauthorization of the bank (see 1906060053).
The Craft Beverage Modernization Act, which covers beer, wine and spirits, will remain in effect through 2020, instead of expiring at the end of this year. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said that the CBMA made it into a tax extenders package that was negotiated after midnight on Dec. 17. The provision allows importers and exporters a refund on alcohol excise taxes.