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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) – chairman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, respectively – announced that they have secured a commitment from the United States Trade Representative (USTR) regarding an exclusion process for the third tranche of tariffs applied to goods from China under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.
“As the trade war with China continues to escalate, it is critical that American manufacturers and businesses have the opportunity to apply for an exclusion from the tariffs,” the senators said. “As leaders of the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Subcommittee, we have secured a commitment from U.S. Trade Representative to implement an exclusion process for the third round of tariffs on China. We must reach a deal that eliminates these harmful tariffs, while also addressing China’s bad behavior on trade policy. Until that occurs, we will work with USTR to ensure a fair exclusion process be made available to manufacturers and companies impacted by the tariffs as soon as possible.”
Items to Note:
- On March 12, 2019, Sens. Moran and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer requesting an exclusion process.
- Included in Sen. Moran and Shaheen’s FY2019 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act is report language requiring that USTR “establish an exclusion process for tariffs imposed on goods subject to Section 301 tariffs in round 3.”
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Sen. Moran Discusses KLETC with FBI Director Wray Ahead of Training Center’s Friday Graduation
Sen. Moran to keynote KLETC graduation ceremony Friday in Hutchinson
May 08 2019
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies – spoke with Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray during a Subcommittee hearing regarding the upcoming Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center (KLETC) graduation ceremony.
This Friday, May 10, Sen. Moran will deliver the keynote address at the KLETC graduation ceremony at 1 p.m. in the KLETC Auditorium, located at 11009 South Hornet, Hutchinson, KS 67501.
Click Here to Watch Full Exchange
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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies – today announced that he has secured a commitment from the United States Trade Representative (USTR) regarding an exclusion process for the third tranche of tariffs applied to goods from China under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.
“I support the Trump Administration’s efforts to hold China accountable for unfair trade practices and the theft of trade secrets and intellectual property rights from American companies, and I continue to support the Administration’s pursuit of strong enforcement of global trade rules,” said Sen. Moran. “However, tariffs are not the only tool to make certain other countries follow international trade rules and treat American exporters and workers fairly. I have made clear that I will continue urging the Administration to quickly reach an agreement with China that eliminates the harmful tariffs, while also addressing China’s bad behavior on trade policy.
“Until this occurs, it is critical that American manufacturers and businesses have the opportunity to apply for an exclusion from the tariffs, and as chairman of the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Subcommittee, I secured a commitment from U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer to establish an exclusion process for the third round of tariffs on China,” continued Sen. Moran. “I am working with USTR to make this exclusion process available as soon as possible, and I will continue to utilize my role on the Senate Appropriations Committee to work toward lasting solutions to these ongoing tariff battles.”
Sen. Moran’s audio remarks attached.
Items to Note:
- On March 12, 2019, Sens. Moran and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer requesting an exclusion process.
- Included in Sen. Moran and Shaheen’s FY2019 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act is report language requiring that USTR “establish an exclusion process for tariffs imposed on goods subject to Section 301 tariffs in round 3.”
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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) with funding jurisdiction over the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Trade, and Consumer Protection with jurisdiction over the health and safety of U.S. Olympic athletes – today questioned FBI Director Christopher Wray in a CJS Subcommittee hearing on the FBI Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) ongoing investigation into the FBI’s handling of sexual abuse within the Olympic movement as it pertains to the Larry Nassar case.
Last January, Sens. Moran and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) opened an investigation into USA Gymnastics, the US Olympic Committee (USOC) and Michigan State University. The investigation began around the USOC’s systemic failures to protect athletes from sexual abuse and the reported filing of a non-disclosure agreement to silence a victim of abuse in relation to the Larry Nassar abuse case and has grown to encompass numerous hearings, hundreds of meetings and thousands of pages of requested documents. Click here for more information about the Members’ ongoing investigation.
Sen. Moran: Director, when you appeared before this Subcommittee last year, I asked you about issues related to the Nassar investigation, Doctor Nassar and the Olympics. You indicated an answer was difficult to give because of an OIG investigation. Since that time, the FBI has conducted an internal investigation that led to that review by the Inspector General, and we await that conclusion. I guess at this point – unless you’re willing to share more information than you were a year ago . . . I would ask you to assure me that the FBI will prioritize and take the OIG’s results and recommendations seriously.
Director Wray (0:45): Well certainly, Mr. Chairman. You know, at first I should say that our heart breaks and aches for the victims of that particular matter. As you said, there’s an Inspector General – independent Inspector General investigation – going on into the handing of that matter, and I expect to take very seriously the recommendations that we get out of the Office of the Inspector General, but that’s very much still an ongoing review.
Click Here to Watch Sen. Moran’s Full Questioning
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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies – today questioned Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray regarding potential spying on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election and the FBI’s efforts to combat Russian inference in our elections.
Click Here to Watch Sen. Moran’s Full Questioning
Director Wray (0:38): “Well Mr. Chairman, there are a couple things going on.
“First, there is of course, the ongoing Inspector General’s investigation that is being conducted by the independent Office of the Inspector General, and our folks are assisting them with their effort.
Director Wray (1:46): “Well as to the 2016 election, I think I’ll let the Special Counsel’s report speak for itself. You know its 450 pages long, represents a lot of hard work by a large team of professionals over almost two years.
“One of the things that I set in motion, almost immediately after starting in this role, was to create a Foreign Influence Task Force, which is a measure not just of how seriously I take, and we take, the foreign malign influence threat, but also, I think a recognition of the need for better coordination.
“This is a multidisciplinary problem requiring a multidisciplinary solution. So the Foreign Influence Task Force brings together our cyber resources, our counter-intelligence resources, our criminal resources and even our counter-terrorism resources because there is a little bit of a domestic terrorism wrinkle to some of this. It acts as sort of the hub with the spokes going out to our field offices and coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security, ODNI, NSA, and in particular, working much more closely with state and local election officials, along with the Department of Homeland Security and the tech sector in Silicon Valley.
“Because – on the foreign influence threat in particular – I think it’s very important for Americans to understand that this is a threat that is not just a government threat. We need to have the partnership with the social media companies in particular. And, we’ve had really significant progress in that regard going into the midterms, and there were a lot of successes in the 2018 midterms through that kind of team effort.”
Sen. Moran (3:30): “Is the election interference broader than just – when we talk about foreign interference in our elections – is it broader than just Russia?”
Director Wray (3:37): “Well there’s different kinds of malign foreign influence. Certainly other countries, other adversaries, are engaged in different kinds of malign foreign influence. The specific form of sowing divisiveness and discord through the bullhorn that social media provides – you know the trolls, the bots, etcetera – that was something that was really fairly unique to the Russians. But, certainly we know that other countries have been eyeing those efforts and entertaining whether or not to take a page out of that book.”
Click here to watch the full questioning.
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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), and U.S. Representatives Roger Marshall (KS-01), Ron Estes (KS-04), Steve Watkins (KS-02) and Sharice Davids (KS-03) today encouraged Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai to address concerns related to the accuracy of Form 477 collection of voice and broadband service and deployment data.
“The FCC’s current broadband availability maps, particularly in the context of fixed broadband access shown by the National Broadband Map, do not utilize data that is granular enough to adequately depict broadband availability in rural communities,” the members wrote. “Form 477 data collection policies dictate that an entire census block be considered served with broadband service even if that service is only offered to one location within the census block. Since census blocks in rural communities are larger than their urban counterparts, rural communities are particularly threatened by this policy. As a result, Kansas communities could be denied eligibility to participate in existing federal funding programs for broadband deployment regardless of their actual need.”
“Many Kansans’ access to affordable and reliable broadband services relies on federal programs that distribute resources for deployment, like the programs administered within the FCC’s Universal Service Fund, but if the information that the federal government uses is not specific or accurate, the agencies administering these programs are not equipped to make appropriate decisions,” the members continued. “In the interest of effectively allocating federal resources to unserved and underserved communities, we urge the FCC to take immediate action to improve the granularity and accuracy of broadband availability maps, especially as new broadband funding initiatives like the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund are rolled out.”
The FCC established its Form 477 data program in 2000 to collect “data regarding broadband services, local telephone service competition, and mobile telephone services on a single form and in a standardized manner” from providers. In 2017, the FCC adopted a rulemaking to evaluate methods to improve the quality of the data collected by the Form 477.
Full text of the letter is here and below.
The Honorable Ajit Pai
Chairman
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, D.C., 20554
Dear Chairman Pai:
We write regarding the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) ongoing efforts to improve the accuracy of its Form 477 collection of voice and broadband subscription and deployment data. As the principal tool used by the FCC to gather data on communications services to inform policymaking, the current Form 477 data collection processes fall short in depicting where fixed and mobile broadband services are available or lacking, with one of the most extreme examples of inaccuracy found in our home state of Kansas. This is especially problematic because this data is used to determine where billions of federal dollars are allocated for broadband deployment. As such, we encourage the FCC to address concerns related to the precision of this critical data collection that informs federal funding so important to our rural communities, and prevents the overbuilding of existing broadband networks.
The FCC’s current broadband availability maps, particularly in the context of fixed broadband access shown by the National Broadband Map, do not utilize data that is granular enough to adequately depict broadband availability in rural communities. Form 477 data collection policies dictate that an entire census block be considered served with broadband service even if that service is only offered to one location within the census block. Since census blocks in rural communities are larger than their urban counterparts, rural communities are particularly threatened by this policy. As a result, Kansas communities could be denied eligibility to participate in existing federal funding programs for broadband deployment regardless of their actual need. With methods such as shapefile format submissions already used to increase granularity of mobile broadband availability depictions, the federal government should consider every tool at its disposal to improve the granularity of all broadband maps.
Additionally, the validation of data submitted to broadband availability databases needs to be bolstered. As the FCC takes steps to improve the quality of broadband availability maps, it should seriously consider verification mechanisms that extend beyond the self-certification of initial data submissions by providers. The Mobility Fund Phase II initial eligibility map highlighted the issues of relying on self-reported data indicating broadband availability in Kansas, but it also demonstrated the importance of a robust and meaningful challenge process, which required significant time and resources of the challenging parties. Therefore, standardized validation of broadband availability, including a challenge process that allows independent entities to participate, is vital to any data collection that affects the distribution of federal resources for broadband deployment.
Many Kansans’ access to affordable and reliable broadband services relies on federal programs that distribute resources for deployment, like the programs administered within the FCC’s Universal Service Fund. But if the information that the federal government uses is not specific or accurate, the agencies administering these programs are not equipped to make appropriate decisions. In the interest of effectively allocating federal resources to unserved and underserved communities, we urge the FCC to take immediate action to improve the granularity and accuracy of broadband availability maps, especially as new broadband funding initiatives like the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund are rolled out. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
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