House Passes FY18 Appropriations Package, Would Ban Funds for SEC Conflict Minerals Requirements
The House on Sept. 14 passed an appropriations package that would fund several agencies with trade functions in fiscal year 2018, adopting an amendment that would prohibit funds being used to “implement, administer, or enforce” the Securities and Exchange Commission’s conflict minerals reporting rule. Introduced by Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., the amendment would block funds from being used for reporting requirement for conflict minerals originating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or adjoining countries, among other things. SEC has said it doesn’t plan to recommend action to enforce its regulation that firms must provide a statement identifying items that are not conflict minerals-free, though current SEC rules also direct companies to provide information related to country of origin for such products (see 1704100023).
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The legislation would also require “not less” than $16.4 million be allocated to the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration specifically for “China antidumping and countervailing duty enforcement and compliance activities.” The bill would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to consult with the Energy and Transportation secretaries as well as maritime industry representatives to take “adequate measures” in ensuring the use of U.S. flag vessels for transportation before approving any waiver of navigation and vessel inspection laws for transportation of crude oil distributed from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The legislation would match CBP’s $109 million request for new non-intrusive inspection equipment, and would formally ban imports of property confiscated by the Cuban government (see 1707120042).
The legislation retains House Appropriations Committee language setting forth guidelines for the Agriculture Department to finalize an agreement to admit Chinese chicken imports into the U.S. The legislation also carries over committee text requiring accurate nicotine content to be displayed on vapor products, as well as an FDA product standard for vapor products to be finalized after 36 months of enactment (see 1706280034). The bill’s proposed allocation for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service comes in $46.8 million shy of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s $953.2 billion outlined in FY18 spending legislation that advanced to the full Senate on July 20 (see 1707200070).
Senate appropriators have cleared FY18 agriculture, transportation, commerce, energy and water, labor, state and foreign operations, legislative branch, military construction and veterans affairs spending legislation. The committee must still mark up homeland security, financial services and general government, defense and interior FY18 appropriations bills. A committee spokesman said in a Sept. 15 email that the committee expects to resume markups this month, “with intentions of completing the final four remaining FY2018 bills.” The House has now passed all appropriations legislation required for FY18.