Date: 1981-06-02
Speaker: VANDER JAGT (republican)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. the distinguished chairman of the Subcommittee on Trade has explained the content of H.R. 2540. which I rise to support. Under his very distinguished bipartisan leadership. through extensive hearings and markups. he has worked together with the minority and the administration to fashion a bill which now has the unanimous support of the committee. I commend him for his leadership and urge my colleagues to support the bill. Mr. Speaker. I support H.R. 2540. a bill authorizing appropriations for the U.S. International Trade Commission. the U.S. Customs Service. and the U.S. Trade Representative for fiscal year 1982. It is heartening to be considering this bill so early in the session since last year it failed to be scheduled at all and often the appropriations bill comes to us first in spite of House rules that require prior passage of authorization legislation. . As described by my colleague. H.R. 2540 authorizes for fiscal year 1982 $18.5 million for the International Trade Commission (ITC). $480 million for the Customs Service. and $10 million for the USTR. All of these amounts represent austere budgets consistent with our overall efforts to control Government spending and reduce the Federal budget deficit. In the case of the Customs Service. the authorization reflects a 3.1percent reduction over fiscal year 1981 levels. In addition to the amounts authorized. H.R. 2540 contains statutory language and important report language that address congressional concerns regarding the operations of these agencies. For example. the bill contains a provision which increases from $20.000 to $25.000 the cap on the amount of overtime pay which may go to any Customs employee and urges Customs management to continue to monitor the allocation of overtime. The increase in the cap will alleviate the administrative burden and additional cost of complying with the more restrictive cap which should be helpful at a time when the hiring freeze will mean fewer inspectors to share the overtime workload. Yet the cap helps to curtail escalating costs in general as well as ease the problems which have arisen among Custoris personnel. Because the reduced budget for the Customs Service will necessarily put pressure on services provided to the traveling public. H.R. 2540 provides for 6month tests of new systems of facilitating passenger processing at at least two major international airports. These tests would be determined and carried out by three agencies: Customs. Agricultures Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). There has been some concern that speededup processing would mean the entrance of plant 6r animal pests and diseases. The bill provides for the active participation of the Department of Agriculture in the processing tests and in any resulting new systems. The bill also prohibits the use of appropriated funds to implement any mechanism for the collection of estimated customs duties that provide for less than a 10day deferment in the collection of such duties. Congressional intent in this regard has been firmly expressed on three previous occasions in the report language of both the Customs Procedural Reform Act (Public Law 95410) and the fiscal year 1980 and 1981 authorization bills for the U.S. Customs Service. Although the present administration has announced no plans to change the present deferment period. the committee wants a definitive statement that finally will put this matter to rest. Thus. H.R. 2540 provides a statutory prohibition against any shortened deferment period. I would like also to mention the concern of the Ways and Means Committee with respect to the reorganization of the structure of the Customs Service which is addressed in this bill. The committee has pressed Customs for several years to reduce the number of its regional offices and to otherwise streamline its operations so that resources are concentrated at the district and port locations where the important direct services are delivered. Although Customs has taken significant steps to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the agency. it has not moved to reduce the number of regional offices. The bill mandates reducing the number of regional offices from 9 to 6 and the number of district offices from 46 to 35 by the end of fiscal year 1982 to help the need for Government cost savings and efficiency. Finally. the bill makes changes in the personal exemptions and simplifled duties applied to merchandise brought back into the United States by the traveling public. We have also made changes in the reimbursements required for certain special customs services. These changes are an effort to set realistic value levels that take into account inflationa trend that began with the Customs Procedural Reform Act. Therefore. the personal exemption for returning residents would be increased from $300 to $600 and from $600 to $800 in those cases where an Jndivldual is returning from the insular possessions. Also. above the personal exemption. the flat 10percent rate of duty5 percent in case of the insular possessionswould be applied to the next $800 worth of noncommercial entries rather than $600 as in current law. Mr. Speaker. H.R. 2540 is an important authorization bill that addresses a broad range of issues that are of ongoing concern for the Congress. I urge my colleagues to give this bill their unqualified support.