Trade tops last Hill week before July 4
June 22, 2015 |07:08 AM
More votes on trade issues will top the Senate and House agendas this week, but there will also be a House vote on cotton futures, regulation, likely House Appropriations Committee action on the fiscal 2016 Agriculture bill, and agriculture hearings in both chambers before Congress leaves Friday for a one-week break over the July 4 holiday.
Following the successful House revote on Friday on a bill to grant President Barack Obama trade promotion authority, the Senate is expected to bring up a stand-alone TPA measure on Tuesday.
But it is still unclear whether the required 60 senators will vote to invoke cloture on the TPA bill. In an earlier vote on a bill that included TPA and trade adjustment assistance, 62 senators voted yes, including 14 Democrats. But without TAA in this bill, some senators have declined to say whether they will vote for the new measure.
If the TPA measure succeeds, both chambers are expected to vote on a bill that would extend the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act and TAA. An earlier TAA vote failed in the House, but advocates of TPA hope that members will feel compelled to vote a bill that contains AGOA.
President Barack Obama, who favors TPA, has said he will sign a TPA bill only if there is accompanying TAA legislation.
Washington Trade Daily reported today that the latest TAA reauthorization measure replaces the Medicare sequestration cut offset to which Democrats objected with a package of measures aimed at improving tax compliance, reauthorizes TAA through June 30, 2021 with $450 million a year for training workers, firms and farmers, including secondary workers. and includes the Leveling the Playing the Field Act cosponsored by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, that had to go to conference.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., broke with Obama over TPA, but they appeared together at a fundraiser in California over the weekend to signal that while they disagree on trade issues, they are a team on most issues.
The House is scheduled to vote Tuesday after 6:30 p.m. on a long list of bills on the suspension calendar, including H.R. 2620, a bill to amend the United States Cotton Futures Act to exclude certain cotton futures contracts from coverage under the act.
The House Appropriations Committee is expected to consider the fiscal year 2016 Agriculture appropriations bill this week, although the date and time of the committee business meeting have not been announced.
The House Agriculture Committee has scheduled three hearings this week.
The full committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday on U.S. international food aid programs.
The House Agriculture Nutrition Subcommittee and the House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee will hold a joint hearing Thursday on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps.
Also on Thursday, the House Agriculture Biotechnology, Horticulture and Research Subcommittee will hold a hearing on food labeling.
The Senate Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing Thursday on country-of-origin labeling and the World Trade Organization decision against the U.S. COOL program for pork and beef.
No votes are expected in the House after 3 p.m. on Friday.
Following the successful House revote on Friday on a bill to grant President Barack Obama trade promotion authority, the Senate is expected to bring up a stand-alone TPA measure on Tuesday.
But it is still unclear whether the required 60 senators will vote to invoke cloture on the TPA bill. In an earlier vote on a bill that included TPA and trade adjustment assistance, 62 senators voted yes, including 14 Democrats. But without TAA in this bill, some senators have declined to say whether they will vote for the new measure.
If the TPA measure succeeds, both chambers are expected to vote on a bill that would extend the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act and TAA. An earlier TAA vote failed in the House, but advocates of TPA hope that members will feel compelled to vote a bill that contains AGOA.
President Barack Obama, who favors TPA, has said he will sign a TPA bill only if there is accompanying TAA legislation.
Washington Trade Daily reported today that the latest TAA reauthorization measure replaces the Medicare sequestration cut offset to which Democrats objected with a package of measures aimed at improving tax compliance, reauthorizes TAA through June 30, 2021 with $450 million a year for training workers, firms and farmers, including secondary workers. and includes the Leveling the Playing the Field Act cosponsored by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, that had to go to conference.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., broke with Obama over TPA, but they appeared together at a fundraiser in California over the weekend to signal that while they disagree on trade issues, they are a team on most issues.
The House is scheduled to vote Tuesday after 6:30 p.m. on a long list of bills on the suspension calendar, including H.R. 2620, a bill to amend the United States Cotton Futures Act to exclude certain cotton futures contracts from coverage under the act.
The House Appropriations Committee is expected to consider the fiscal year 2016 Agriculture appropriations bill this week, although the date and time of the committee business meeting have not been announced.
The House Agriculture Committee has scheduled three hearings this week.
The full committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday on U.S. international food aid programs.
The House Agriculture Nutrition Subcommittee and the House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee will hold a joint hearing Thursday on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps.
Also on Thursday, the House Agriculture Biotechnology, Horticulture and Research Subcommittee will hold a hearing on food labeling.
The Senate Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing Thursday on country-of-origin labeling and the World Trade Organization decision against the U.S. COOL program for pork and beef.
No votes are expected in the House after 3 p.m. on Friday.
