Washington Insider-- Tuesday

By DTN's Washington Insider

Here's a quick monitor of Washington farm and trade policy issues from DTN's well-placed observer.

Congressional Leaders Putting Finishing Touches on Appropriations Bills

With just four days until Congress adjourns for the year –– and three days until the federal government runs out of money –– House and Senate leaders will be focusing most of their attention this week on making sure the government isn't subject to another shut down, as it was a year ago.

Congressional Appropriations chairs Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., would prefer to file and pass an 11-bill omnibus measure that would fund the government through next Sept. 30. However, there also have been indications that their preference may not be achieved before midnight on Thursday (when the current funding measure expires) and that Congress therefore would need to approve a short-term continuing resolution to keep money flowing until the next Congress can settle the matter in 2015.

In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are setting the stage for quick action once the House clears the legislation. But even Reid suggested that the key to quick action is to keep the omnibus free of controversial riders.

Over at the White House, aides say President Obama would sign an omnibus spending bill if it makes it though the congressional meat grinder. The final grinding begins in earnest today.

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House Committee to Hear from EPA on Renewable Fuels Standard

The Environmental Protection Agency already is more than a year late in announcing the federal Renewable Fuels Standard for 2014 and that shortcoming is certain to be the main topic of discussion at a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing tomorrow. The hearing's sole witness will be Janet McCabe, EPA's acting assistant administrator for air and radiation.

The hearing comes as House Republicans have vowed to pursue legislation to amend the standard, which requires petroleum refiners to blend billions of gallons of biofuel into the nation's fuel supply.

EPA announced last month it would not finalize the standard's requirements for 2014 this year, which opponents said presented further evidence that the requirements are unworkable and need to be changed. The agency did say it would announce the RFS for 2014 "prior to or in conjunction with action on the 2015 rule," but did not indicate when that might be.

Current energy law requires EPA to announce each year's Renewable Fuels Standard by Nov. 30 of the preceding year. The agency was 40 days late in announcing the 2013 RFS, will be at least 13 months late on the 2014 standard, and will be several months tardy with regard to 2015. Subcommittee members will have many questions for EPA's McCabe.

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Washington Insider: Congressional Attack on TPA

Fast track, or Trade Promotion Authority for the president, was invented long ago to insure that a minority of congressional interests could not amend to death trade deals they lack the votes to defeat. Under fast track, the executive branch negotiates an agreement along the lines agreed in consultations with Congress, and then sends it to Congress which has a fixed time to approve or reject the agreement as written. This gives trading partners confidence that the deals they negotiate have a strong chance of approval. No major trade agreement has been completed in recent years without fast track authority.

Trade skeptics in Congress use all sorts of devices to attempt to sideline fast track, especially the argument that it is an abuse of executive authority and now, once again, they are fighting proposed legislation to reinstate it.

House Ways and Means Committee ranking member, Sander Levin, D-Mich., is pushing an unusual idea this time that he hopes can elevate the congressional role in trade to something like the veto position it had before when unlimited amendments were allowed.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman says his office has had some 1,500 meetings with members of Congress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade talks, and both the president and Froman have called on Congress for bipartisan fast track authority to provide updated instructions on negotiating priorities.

Nevertheless, Rep. Levin insists this is merely "considerable consultation without adequate meaningful involvement." He wants a formal structure that requires regular consultation with the committees of jurisdiction as the negotiations ensue. That would mean "full participation of this Congress in the discussion and the resolution of these issues," Levin said, referring to the most contentious aspects of proposed trade agreements.

He thinks the way to achieve this is for negotiators to strike a deal first and then turn to Congress for fast track authority. "Moving TPA without a clear role for Congress and a clear understanding of these issues might well mean that TPA will fail," he warned.

Levin's comments at a briefing for reporters came the same week President Obama significantly ramped up engagement on TPA and pledged to work with Congress to secure renewal.

Levin's position puts him sharply at odds with key Republicans, including Senate Finance Committee ranking Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah, who have long claimed that TPA renewal must precede completion of the TPP if the United States is to get the best deal possible. USTR Froman agrees that TPA would strengthen his hand at the negotiating table.

Levin says that there has been a struggle with the administration in getting access to the negotiating texts, although a recent agreement with the trade representative's office cleared congressional staff access to texts that highlights differences between the TPP negotiating text at two different points in time.

Chief negotiators from the 12 countries negotiating the TPP — the United States Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam are meeting this week in Washington.

Levin consistently advocates strong provisions on labor rights, environmental protection and access to medicines be maintained in any TPP agreement reached, and worries that current texts are insufficient in many areas. This is an indication of the difficulties inherent in the "role sharing" concept he advocates.

"At this critical juncture, with all of these outstanding issues, the focus has to be right now on the substance of TPP and not passing a TPA. Because if you go down the list of these [contentious] issues, there's no way for TPA to spell out what Congress thinks needs to be contained in an effective TPP," Levin said. In fact, critics suggest, these areas have been carefully spelled out, and they reflect areas of disagreement on objectives or on achievable levels of ambition for a final deal.

Critics also suggest that Levin's likely objective is to kill TPP negotiations, rather than agree on "workable" compromises in many of his key areas, and that his proposal for a formal structure with Congress is simply unworkable.

A key issue overall is the attitude of the Republican rank and file in the new Congress since many of the more conservative members have not demonstrated any great fondness for trade deals. This position flies in the face of the fact that trade policy traditionally has been an area of great interest to Republicans.

Looking forward now, with the president on board supporting fast track, a bipartisan bill should possible in the near future, observers suggest. That also could mean somewhat brighter prospects for the TPP, although many significant hurdles remain to be surmounted, Washington Insider believes.

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(GH/CZ)

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