Complex legislation on intellectual property is unlikely in coming years because the new Congress is going after major issues which define their own parties, a Washington lobbyist concluded in a roundtable on the impact of last week’s elections held by the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association.
The intellectual property issue is being “pushed way off to the side and down the list” of legislative priorities, said Dan Tate, Jr., a partner with Capitol Solutions of Washington D.C. He did say that some of the Congressional Members that best understood this issue lost their races in the November elections, which will only make action less likely.
According to Washington, D.C. insiders, Bill Sells (SGMA; Vice President; Governmental Relations), Loren Monroe (Principal; Barbour, Griffiths & Rogers Public Affairs; Washington, DC), and Dan Tate, Jr. (Partner; Capitol Solutions; Washington, DC), the major themes in 2011 will be cutting government spending, reducing the national debt, the future of the Bush tax cuts, and creating jobs. Needless to say, consensus will be needed on all those issues with shared power in Washington, D.C.
All three speakers agreed that House Republicans and the Obama Administration actually will have common issues they can work on together. One of the bigger trade issues is the tension with China regarding its currency valuation.
On the issue of maintaining security on imports, Monroe noted that if the federal government does not fund cargo screening of products entering the country, then private industry will be forced to follow certain mandates which can be expensive.
Regarding the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) implementation and enforcement of regulations, Monroe is “concerned about the application and enforcement” of the CPSC’s existing rules and regulations. Monroe sees an important role for the private sector in working with Congress to affect how the new product safety laws are interpreted, implemented, and enforced.
