Bipartisan group of senators says China currency bill on a glide path

The Senate is poised to take a procedural vote on Monday that would allow debate to begin on the bill. Lawmakers are expecting to keep amendments to a minimum to speed passage before the end of the week. 

Schumer said the bill’s newly found momentum has “unnerved some in the U.S.” but mostly those in “corporate America.” 

The “opposition groups are behind the political times,” he said. 

Similar legislation has been floating around Capitol Hill for several years but hasn’t managed to garner enough support to clear Congress. 

Even if House leadership decides to take up and eventually pass the measure, the White House hasn’t committed its support. 

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) along with other Democrats have urged passage of a China currency bill in tandem with three pending trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea and Panama. 

Last fall, the House passed a similar bill on a bipartisan vote of 348-79 – with 99 Republicans supporting the measure. But there’s no indication from House Republicans that they support the measure.

Still, Schumer and a large group of lawmakers said it’s up to the Senate to “send a message to China that we won’t tolerate their currency manipulation anymore.”

“The time for treating China nicely is over,” he said. 

Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said because the Obama administration hasn’t addressed the problem it’s up to Congress has to protect free and fair trade. 

The measure’s language conforms to World Trade Organization rules and will confront China’s “currency misalignment” a term the lawmakers said is used by the International Monetary Fund. 

“We want to export our products not our jobs,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said. 

“It will create 1.6 million jobs, won’t cost us a dime and will level the playing field so companies can compete,” she said. “It’s been way to long and we’ve lost way too many jobs.” 

The lawmakers said a undervalued currency gives Chinese companies an unfair advantage against U.S. manufacturers and forcing a change could lead to the creation of upward of 1.6 million jobs. 

The Senate bill would require the Commerce Department to investigate any country undervaluing its currency and deem the practice as a government subsidy under U.S. law. Affected U.S. companies would then be allowed to seek retaliatory tariffs on goods imported from the country.

The Treasury Department also would be able to take actions against countries with undervalued currency if the problems aren’t corrected within a specific period of time. 

China’s currency value has risen about 3 percent so far this year and around 6.6 percent since the Chinese government allowed appreciation to resume in June 2010.

A coalition of 51 U.S. business groups sent a letter last week opposing the legislation and urging Congress to focus more on China’s inadequate protection of intellectual property and policies that favor Chinese firms.