Necessary & Proper Episode 30: The Legislative Branch and Trade
American trade policy has been the subject of much interest and media attention over the last two years. The Constitution grants the legislative branch full authority over trade policy, including the power to impose and collect taxes, duties, tariffs, and to regulate international commerce. By contrast, the Constitution gives the President authority to negotiate international agreements and it assigns him no specific power over international commerce and trade.
However, Congress has consistently delegated much of its power to regulate trade to the executive branch. From global trade initiatives to trade barriers and agreements, should Congress more fully assert its role? Listen to these topics by our expert panel, including Stephen Claeys (Wiley Rein), Daniel McCarthy (Modern Age), Brian Pomper (Akin Gump), and our moderator Molly Boyl Fromm (Financial Services Committee, U.S. House).
General Counsel & Parliamentarian, U. S. House of Representatives, Financial Services Committee
Molly Boyl Fromm is the General Counsel and Parliamentarian for the Financial Services Committee in U.S. House of Representatives. Prior to this role she has served the House as the General Counsel and Parliamentarian for the Committee on Science, Space and Technology and as Deputy General Counsel and Parliamentarian for the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
She received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Berkley and her law degree from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law.
Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Mr. Pomper formerly served as chief international trade counsel to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). In that role, he was responsible for advising Chairman Baucus and other members of the Senate Finance Committee on all aspects of the Committee’s international trade and economic agenda.
In his current practice, Mr. Pomper represents companies before Congress, the White House and federal agencies on a diverse set of public policy matters, including market access, investment, international trade disputes, intellectual property, international tax and customs issues.
Mr. Pomper also serves as an adjunct professor teaching international trade policy and politics at George Washington’s Graduate School of Political Management. He was elected 2011 to serve a three-year term as a member of the Steering Committee for the International Law Section of the D.C. Bar. He is an Educational Counselor for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for which he interviews students from the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia applying to MIT.
Mr. Pomper is a member of the U.S. patent bar.
Editor, Modern Age
Daniel McCarthy is the Editor of Modern Age, an American conservative academic quarterly journal. Previously, he was the editor-at-large of The American Conservative from 2010 through 2016. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, The Spectator, The National Interest, Reason, Modern Age, and other publications. He has been interviewed on National Public Radio, the BBC, Fox Business, and many other outlets. Outside of journalism, he has worked as internet communications coordinator of the Ron Paul 2008 presidential campaign and senior editor of ISI Books. He is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied classics.