No Senate Customs Vote Scheduled as Trade Associations Join in Push for Movement

Nineteen trade associations urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to schedule a vote for the customs reauthorization bill -- the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (H.R. 644) -- in a Jan. 15 letter (here). After the House passed the legislation (see 1512110029), the bill has sat idle in the Senate and no vote is scheduled, a McConnell spokeswoman said on Jan. 19. “We have worked for over a decade to bring this long-overdue legislation to passage, and so we urge you to quickly schedule a vote on the conference report,” the letter reads. If binding, the legislation would save money for U.S. businesses and consumers by modernizing customs laws and procedures to keep up with business trends and increase efficiency, the groups said.

The groups pointed to a number of largely noncontroversial provisions within the legislation. “For example, the Customs Reauthorization bill contains provisions that affect every day trade operations - raising the de minimislevel for imports, simplified importation of containers for bulk commodities, modernization and simplification of duty drawback, and many others that streamline the customs process for importing goods and result in bottom-line savings,” the letter states.

Among the signers of the letter are the American Apparel & Footwear Association, the Express Association of America, and the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America. "It is critical that the Senate complete passage of this bi-partisan legislation and get it to the President's desk as the efficiencies contained in the bill will contribute to the growth of the U.S. economy," said the trade groups. Debate over whether to keep a permanent extension of the Internet Tax and Freedom Act in the bill has delayed Senate consideration of H.R. 644 since House passage (see 1601150011).