House Spending Bill Provides for ICE Forced Labor and IPR Enforcement

The subcommittee report criticizes what it says were ICE’s cross-agency financial management struggles, saying the underlying problems largely stem from the limited authority and organizational placement of its CFO who is “subordinated” to executive associate directors of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). Lawmakers in the report urged the ICE director to elevate the CFO position and expand the position’s responsibilities to agency-wide resource management and funds control. ICE didn’t comment. Spending legislation must be signed into law by the end of the day May 5 for the government to avoid a shutdown.

The bill would also provide $10.9 billion total for CBP operations and support, $700 million less than Trump’s request for FY 2017. Included in that total is $65.4 million for enhancing hiring processes for customs officers, air and marine personnel and Border Patrol agents, and relocation enhancements, according to the bill. Further, the legislation would cap CBP officers’ and ICE employees overtime for FY 2017 at $45,000, unless Department of Homeland Security headquarters determines extra overtime is necessary.

The bill would increase funding by more than $50 million for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, with the additional money targeted at “high priority initiatives in order to protect the plant and animal resources of the Nation from pests and diseases,” the report says. Almost half of that is new funding for “Emergency Preparedness and Response,” stemming from the agency's experience with the 2015 bird flu outbreak.

The bill provides the Food and Drug Administration with an additional $35.7 million to support implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, it says. Some $17 million of that is provided for import safety, which “should help FDA ensure an even playing field in the application of FSMA regulations as it relates to both domestic and imported producers, processors, and manufacturers of food and animal feed,” the report says. The bill also increases by $2.5 million the amount of funding for foreign high-risk inspections. The report directs FDA to provide Congress with an update on its foreign inspection efforts. The bill does not authorize import user fees requested by FDA.

The bill adds $2 million to the funding provided to the Commerce Department’s Enforcement and Compliance Office, which calculates antidumping and countervailing duties “for trade enforcement activities.” It also prohibits the Consumer Product Safety Commission from using funds in the bill to finalize a proposed safety standard on recreational off-highway vehicles until a study is completed by the National Academy of Sciences.

The bill also proposes stricter procurement requirements, including authorization for the defense secretary to rescind Pentagon blanket waivers of the Buy American Act applied in certain circumstances under reciprocal procurement agreements with other nations. If, in consulting with the USTR, the secretary finds that a foreign country that is party to such a “reciprocal defense procurement memorandum of understanding” discriminated against certain types of U.S. products, the defense secretary “shall rescind” Buy American waivers that pertain to the same types of products made in the foreign country. Also, Section 506 of the spending legislation would prohibit the granting of contracts or subcontracts involving FY 2017 funds to anyone who intentionally attaches a “Made in America” label to any product not made in the U.S.

The House Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee report (here) indicates a markup of $27.5 million for the Federal Maritime Commission for FY 2017, $1.8 million more than the FY 2016-enacted amount. The bill would provide $100 million for DHS’s Port Security Grants Program for FY 2017, after Trump’s FY 2018 budget blueprint proposed to significantly reduce funding for that account (see 1703170037). . The Transportation Subcommittee report also notes that the legislation would require the transportation secretary to provide at least 60 days’ written notification to the congressional appropriations committees before providing FASTLANE grants, including an evaluation and justification for the project and the amount of the proposed grant. The legislation would also provide $268 million for the Army Corps of Engineers’ deep-draft harbor and channel work for FY 2017, according to the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee report (here).

The bill also contains language that would exempt Trump’s U.S. trade representative nominee Robert Lighthizer from legal requirements barring individuals who have represented foreign entities from serving as USTR or deputy USTR, after the Senate Finance Committee on April 25 voted to advance the nomination and accompanying legal language to the Senate floor (see 1704250032). The spending legislation also contains what would be a permanent fix for retired coal miners’ health benefits, language that Senate Democrats demanded that Republicans advance in exchange for any support of Lighthizer’s nomination (see 1702150047). Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in a statement (here) he will support the legislative waiver that would allow Lighthizer to serve as USTR, now that the omnibus bill includes miners’ health care legislation.