Five Senate Committees Ready to Take Up USMCA
After the Senate Parliamentarian ruled that six other committees besides Finance need to consider the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, five of those committees have scheduled hearings or meetings to deal with the implementing bill next week. The Budget and the Environment committees will take it up Jan. 14; the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and the Commerce committees will take it up Jan. 15; and the Foreign Relations Committee will take it up Jan. 16. If the Appropriations Committee were to also have a hearing next week, a vote could come the following week, but Appropriations has not scheduled a hearing.
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The chairmen of the Senate Finance, Environment, Commerce and Foreign Relations committees held a press conference Jan. 9 to emphasize that they are quickly “moving this along toward reality.” Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, whose committee already recommended the USMCA be passed, added: “So you can see the Senate's not going to dilly-dally around, waiting to see what Speaker Pelosi wants to do on impeachment, and these committees are going to act very quickly next week, so whenever the [majority] leader decides to bring this up, we'll be ready to go.”
However, if the Appropriations Committee does not act at all, any vote on the bill would have to wait until March, because any committee has 45 session days to consider a trade deal before it is automatically discharged to the floor. If the Appropriations Committee does act in time for a full Senate vote on or before Jan. 16, Canada still needs to ratify the USMCA. Grassley said the Canadian parliament convenes on Jan. 27. The USMCA could be voted on during an impeachment trial, but it would require the assent of all 100 senators.