WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Ways & Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-MA) and all committee Democrats called on Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) to convene hearings on U.S.-China trade with Trump Administration representatives. Despite having constitutional authority over matters of foreign commerce and oversight over trade policy, the Ways & Means Committee has thus far exercised no oversight over the continuing trade discussions between the United States and China.
In their letter to Chairman Brady, the members noted that the committee has been unacceptably disengaged from the administration’s high-level trade discussions. The members pointed out the absurdity of this detachment as “press reports indicate an increasingly baffling set of circumstances and developments," and as top members of the Trump Administration give conflicting public statements within hours of one another.
Today’s letter comes a day after Ranking Member Neal and Trade Subcommittee Ranking Member Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) sent their second letter to President Trump laying out their serious concerns with the negative direction of the ongoing U.S.-China trade discussions. Neal and Pascrell had previously requested that the U.S. Trade Representative, the Department of the Treasury, and the Department of Commerce provide a briefing on the United States’ ongoing negotiations with China.
Noting that when a small group of Ways & Means Committee members met with China’s Vice Premier Liu He and Chinese negotiators last week, “Vice Premier Liu began the meeting by acknowledging the importance of Congress and expressing his interest in listening to our views," the members asked Chairman Brady: “Isn’t it time for this Committee to bring in representatives of the U.S. administration so that we can hear from them directly, and so that they can listen to our views?"
