The House Ways and Means Committee Tuesday advanced to the floor implementing legislation for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on a nearly unanimous vote.
The panel agreed to favorably report the bill (HR 5430) without changes after a mock markup where members reviewed the 239-page legislation. By law, implementing legislation for a trade agreement cannot be amended.
One of the panel members registering his disappointment was Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-N.J., who said the bill was getting “a bum’s rush in an effort to schedule a White House East Room victory celebration. I want to register that I am at best deeply uneasy about how this process has concluded.” He appeared to cast the only audible “no” vote on the plan.
House is scheduled to vote Thursday on the bill.
Senate action, however, will take place in 2020, said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., after the chamber finishes the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
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