<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;" class="">POLITICO</span></b><br class=""><div class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;" class="">House Dems ask State IG to investigate Malaysia trafficking upgrade<o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">By Victoria Guida<o:p class=""></o:p></div><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">09/28/2015 05:20PM EDT<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">A group of House Democrats are calling on the State Department's inspector general to investigate whether outside factors affected the department's decision to upgrade Malaysia in its annual human trafficking report.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">In a <a href="http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e852559d62eaf62a076f9c8e604590d194104da424feaf519c5f17e336709665" target="_blank" style="color: purple;" class="">letter </a>that was to go out this afternoon, the six lawmakers ask Inspector General Steve Linick to examine whether the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Commerce Department or any other federal agency asked for the change in Malaysia's status.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Although the letter doesn't explicitly mention the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Southeast Asian nation's upgrade had the effect of bypassing language in the trade promotion authority law that removes fast-track protections for trade deals with countries in the lowest tier of the report. Malaysia is a participant in the TPP talks.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">"We further request that your office examine the scope and degree to which the State Department processes for evaluating a nation in the TIP Report may have been unduly influenced by political consideration as opposed to the unbiased analysis of experts in the J/TIP office," says the letter, led by Rep. Rosa DeLauro and signed by Reps. Lloyd Doggett, Alan Grayson, Louise Slaughter, Brad Sherman and Barbara Lee.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Lee sits on the State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee, which funds the IG's office, and Sherman and Grayson sit on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The lawmakers also ask him to explore whether State fully complied with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 in drafting the report, and if the document was delayed for reasons outside of those laid out in that law.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div></div></body></html>