NEW YORK: Lawmakers were unable to finish a customs enforcement bill will before the House’s August recess on Wednesday, leaving a final piece of President Obama’s legislative trade agenda undone.
Chances to reconcile differences and get the bill to a House-Senate conference before the break quickly evaporated as lawmakers devoted most of their final days in Washington to passing a short-term transportation funding extension.
“I am pleased that we have made significant progress and I expect this will allow us to move to a formal conference committee soon after Congress returns from this district work period,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).
“I am confident the bill we send to the president will include important House priorities and provide the United States the enforcement tools needed to ensure American workers and businesses are competing on a level playing field.”
There was a glimmer of hope last week that the House and Senate could narrow their differences and reach an agreement, but the schedule ahead of the summer break proved too tight to wrap up work on the measure.
“We’re continuing to make progress in our discussions and are prepared to get a strong bipartisan customs bill across the finish line and signed into law,” a Senate Finance Committee aide told The Hill.
“While the negotiations will not conclude before the House breaks for its August work period, Chairman [Orrin] Hatch [R-Utah] is confident that the chambers will be able to move to a formal conference committee and get a customs bill signed into law this fall.”
The House, which heads home Wednesday night, has yet to name conferees on the bill.
The Senate has another week of work ahead before breaking until after Labor Day.
The delay sets up what could be a busy congressional schedule filled with major trade priorities through the rest of the year, including a sweeping trans-Pacific pact.
Negotiators are in Hawaii this week trying to reach an agreement on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which could wind up before Congress before year’s end.
The 10-year customs bill aims to streamline and improve trade enforcement and facilitation but it also includes some sweeteners to entice lawmakers.
Specifically, environmental groups are irked by a provision that won’t allow the president to use trade agreements to strike deals on climate change.
Groups such as the Sierra Club have urged conferees to reject that language, which they say handcuffs the U.S. ability to make any future progress on climate change.
“Trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership already put our climate in peril, and this language would make already bad trade pacts even worse for our planet,” said Ilana Solomon, director of the Sierra Club’s Responsible Trade Program.
“Members of Congress who care about our air, water, and climate action must remove this damaging provision from the bill.”
The president signed the other trade bills, including trade promotion authority, or fast-track, on June 29.
