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Fast-Track Trade Bill To Get Another Vote In Congress On Thursday

Fast-Track Trade Bill To Get Another Vote In Congress On Thursday

By Lisa Mascaro, Tribune Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON — Trying to salvage President Barack Obama’s trade agenda, Republican leaders in Congress plan to vote again Thursday on legislation giving the president fast-track negotiating authority, sidestepping House Democrats’ opposition and leaving the future of a worker-assistance program uncertain.

It’s a risky move for House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-OH) but it is backed by the White House as one of the few options left if Congress is to provide Obama with the authority the administration says it needs to finish negotiations on a sweeping 12-nation Pacific Rim trade deal. Under the plan, a related worker-assistance program — seen as key to winning support from some key Democrats — would be handled separately.

Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) issued a rare joint statement late Wednesday pledging their support to ensure that both bills — Trade Promotion Authority and Trade Adjustment Assistance — reach the president’s desk.

“We are committed to ensuring both TPA and TAA get votes in the House and Senate and are sent to the president for signature,” the two Republican leaders said.

Under the emerging plan, the House fast-track bill could be sent as soon as Thursday to the Senate, which would likely vote on it next week. But it faces a tough climb in both chambers amid Democratic opposition to the fast-track bill and fears that the worker-training program, which Republicans largely oppose, would be scuttled.

To allay concerns from Democrats who want to preserve the worker-training program, the Senate would separately attach the Trade Adjustment Assistance legislation, which provides the training funds, to a related trade bill and send it back to the House for final passage in that chamber.

Obama was personally calling Democrats on Wednesday to shore up support from the few members of the president’s party who back the trade package, and the administration summoned lawmakers to the White House for a hastily arranged series of afternoon meetings before the annual congressional picnic.

Most Democrats, including party leaders, continue to oppose the fast-track bill, and the administration has largely maneuvered around them in pursuit of a deal with Republicans and the small number of Democrats.

But some Democratic votes are still needed to ensure passage in both chambers, and those lawmakers were insistent Wednesday that if they lent their support to fast-track, the worker-training program would have to be approved before it expires on Sept. 30.

“We have to have an understanding: It has got to be both proposals,” said Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) who fielded a call from the president. “Trust is the key. Trust wins the day. Lack there of destroys it.”

Trade policy was thrown into disarray last week when Democrats in the House, led by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) delivered a surprise rebuke to the president by rejecting his trade package.

The original plan had been to pair the fast-track bill with an extension of the worker-retraining program as a way to build bipartisan support for the broader trade package.

But Democrats voted en masse against the worker-assistance program, which they traditionally have supported, because they saw it as their best opportunity to halt the broader fast-track bill.

The fast-track measure, similar to those passed during previous administrations, would allow the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership and future trade deals to come to a simple yes-or-no vote in Congress without amendment.

“I don’t think it’s even necessary,” Pelosi said about fast-track authority during an interview on CNBC. “It’s a convenience for the administration. It’s an advantage for the business community. But it’s a hardship for workers.” Democrats are worried that a trade deal will cost American jobs.

After last week’s setback, Republicans scrambled to save the deal. Many lawmakers were feeling increasingly confident Wednesday that Boehner and McConnell had engineered a path forward.

“As we say in the South: Get ‘er done,” said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) who backed the new strategy even before he fielded a call from the president, but acknowledged some anguish remained among his Democratic colleagues. “They need to get on their knees and get heavenly divine guidance.”

Republicans were hopeful Wednesday that many of the 28 House Democrats who supported fast-track would do so again. Boehner met privately with about a dozen of them this week. Afterward, one of them, Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., said he was optimistic the bills would be approved.

Less certain is whether Boehner or McConnell will be able to muster any additional Republican votes. More than 50 House Republicans oppose fast-track and getting them to switch their votes to make up for possible Democratic defections is proving difficult.

Although Republicans have 54 seats in the Senate, they must rely on Democrats to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to advance a fast-track bill.

Fourteen Senate Democrats had supported fast-track when it was bundled with the training program in that chamber’s version of the bill. Support from most of them still would be needed amid some GOP opposition.

Many of those Democratic senators needed a guarantee that the assistance program, which now would be attached to a separate bill designating trade preferences to some African nations, would become law.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest tried to calm concerns by insisting Wednesday that the president would sign the bills at the same time.

“The only legislative strategy that the president will support is a strategy that results in both TPA and TAA coming to his desk,” Earnest said. “It will require the support of Democrats in both the House and the Senate. And it will require the House and Senate to continue to operate in bipartisan fashion when considering this issue.”

Assurances that the bills will be signed together were key to many Senate Democrats. “That’s the guarantee that people want … and I’m one of them,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). “Everybody feels strongly about that, and I think the president feels strongly about it.”

(c)2015 Tribune Co. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

File photo: AFP Photo/Jim Watson

Hillary Clinton Sides With Critics Of Trade Deal, Says Obama Should Listen

Hillary Clinton Sides With Critics Of Trade Deal, Says Obama Should Listen

By Joseph Tanfani and Kurtis Lee, Tribune Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton waded into the increasingly intense fight among Democrats over trade on Sunday, saying President Barack Obama should listen to critics of a proposed Pacific trade deal and try to come up with “an agreement that would be better and not worse for American workers.”

Clinton, who had avoided commenting on the trade debate for weeks while it was under consideration in Congress, told supporters at a gathering in Burlington, Iowa: “I have held my peace because I thought it was important for the Congress to have a full debate without thrusting presidential politics and candidates into it.”
Now, however, after the House’s rejection Friday of legislation that would have given Obama so-called fast-track authority to negotiate trade deals, “I think the president and his team could have a chance to drive a harder bargain, because they are now in the position of saying to all of these other countries, ‘We need to maximize the number of winners.'”

Clinton’s decision to side with the critics marked her most consequential break with Obama since she began her presidential campaign. It came on an issue that unions, environmental organizations and other groups in the left wing of the Democratic Party have turned into a test of strength against the White House.

The decision by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to oppose the trade legislation came as a stinging rebuke to Obama. Republicans, led by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., said Democrats were speeding Obama’s transition into lame-duck status.

Clinton’s comments in Burlington were her second set of remarks on trade during a day of campaigning in Iowa. Earlier, at a rally in Des Moines, she made a more ambiguous statement, saying that “the president should listen to and work with his allies in Congress, starting with Nancy Pelosi, who have expressed their concerns about the impact that a weak agreement would have on our workers.”

At the Burlington event, she was more emphatic, saying that to win her support, the 12-nation Pacific trade pact would have to be made “better” than the deal the administration is negotiating.

“What I want to see is a concerted effort to see how far we can push the agreement. If we push it far enough where it looks like we can do a better job, where we can have more winners than losers, then we can make that judgment. If we can’t, then we should make the other judgment.

“You will not hear me line up in this case with the ‘pro trade’ or the ‘no trade’ because my view has always been: Is it good for America or not?” she said. “If the specifics can get better then maybe it’s something worth supporting. If they can’t, then we don’t.”

She specifically criticized two elements of the deal under negotiation. Specialized panels that hear trade disputes need to “listen to other voices besides corporate interests,” she said. And big drug companies, which would be among the main winners in the deal, should be required to give Medicare a break on drug prices in return for the advantages they would receive, she said.

Both proposals would be bitterly opposed by Republicans.

Clinton’s previous silence on the issue had garnered strong criticism from some members of her party and rivals seeking the nomination, including Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Sanders had urged Clinton Sunday to “side with the unions” against passage of the trade bill, which will be reviewed in the House again next week.

“I would hope very much that Secretary Clinton will side with every union in this country, virtually every environmental group, many religious groups,” in opposition to the trade proposal, Sanders said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Spurred by criticism from labor unions and the left, House Democrats rebuffed a dramatic personal appeal from Obama on Friday and voted down a package of measures that would have allowed the White House to conclude a trade deal that Congress could approve or reject but could not amend.

Although the House approved fast-track authority, it rejected a related measure to retrain displaced American workers, something Democrats usually support. Labor and many Democrats are skeptical that the proposed free-trade deal would benefit U.S. workers.

The Senate had passed both measures as a package.

Earlier Sunday, Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez predicted that the proposed trans-Pacific trade accord would be completed despite the rejection by House Democrats.

“I’m very confident that we can find a way,” Perez said on ABC’s “This Week.” “There are multiple pathways here.”
Ryan, who supports the deal, said he remained optimistic.

“The president has a lot of work to do with his own party to turn this around and salvage this,” Ryan said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“It’s ironic,” he added. “They are the ones who are making him a very lame-duck president, his own party.”

(c)2015 Tribune Co. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo by Public Citizen/Flickr

Senate Passes Fast-Track Trade Authority For Obama, But House Fight Looms

Senate Passes Fast-Track Trade Authority For Obama, But House Fight Looms

By Don Lee and Lisa Mascaro, Tribune Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON — After a lengthy debate, the Senate approved a contentious bill Friday that would grant President Barack Obama the power to speed up passage of trade deals, but a tougher battle is expected in the House.

The 62-37 vote to give the president so-called fast-track authority is a big boost for his top economic priority, bringing him closer to his goal of forging an ambitious Pacific free-trade accord known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

“Today’s bipartisan Senate vote is an important step toward ensuring the United States can negotiate and enforce strong, high-standards trade agreements,” Obama said. “I want to thank senators of both parties for sticking up for American workers by supporting smart trade and strong enforcement, and I encourage the House of Representatives to follow suit.”

The hard-fought legislation, which Senate Democrats initially blocked in an unusual rebuke of the president, now moves to the House where there appears to be considerably greater resistance from both Democratic leaders and some conservative Republicans.

Many Democratic lawmakers face enormous pressure to vote against fast-track, from constituents in their districts, organized labor and a hodgepodge of consumer groups representing doctors, the environment and an open Internet, among others.

The Republican leadership, while traditionally favoring free trade, has found itself in a rare position of cooperating with Obama, but some GOP members are still loath to give the president a greater hand on anything, let alone one that would help him seal America’s biggest-ever trade deal.

“The real game is in the House,” said Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, which like other business associations is strongly behind fast-track and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. “Frankly, the bigger problem is how many Republicans we’re going to lose than how many Democrats we get.”

At this point, congressional insiders and analysts trying to handicap the House vote — which could come as soon as early June — say 17 Democrats have firmly come out in favor of fast-track. About 190 Republicans, meanwhile, are known to be backing it, but where the remaining 55 House Republicans stand on the issue isn’t entirely clear. If all of the latter vote against fast-track and Obama doesn’t win about a dozen more Democrats to his side, the president will fall short of the majority vote needed to succeed.

Fast-track, more formally known as trade promotion authority, is seen as essential to concluding the TPP. The authority would allow the president to submit a negotiated pact knowing that Congress must vote it up or down with no amendments. The White House says trading partners have been reluctant to show their final hand when there’s risk the deal could be changed by American lawmakers.

The Pacific trade negotiations involve the U.S., Japan and 10 other nations that combined make up 40 percent of the world economy. Their purported aim is to craft a comprehensive package that would not only remove tariffs but also devise rules and standards on things like intellectual property and cross-border data flows.

Obama has argued that expanding trade and investment opportunities in the Pacific Rim is crucial to American economic and geopolitical interests, especially in the face of a rising China. But many Democrats are concerned that freer trade will hurt U.S. industries and jobs, and some high-profile opponents such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have sharply criticized the Trans-Pacific Partnership for both the secrecy in which negotiations have been conducted and certain elements of the proposed pact that have been shared with lawmakers under strict confidentiality rules.

Obama’s fast-track victory in the Senate was practically assured after a bloc of pro-trade Democrats ended a one-day filibuster earlier this month after bipartisan leaders agreed to add expanded worker retraining assistance to the bill and take up separately a measure to punish nations that manipulate currency values to boost trade.

The Senate earlier easily passed the currency manipulation bill, but experts agree it was largely a symbolic action as it has almost no chance of clearing the House.

A separate currency measure, offered Friday as an amendment to the fast-track bill, brought a veto threat from the White House and prompted Obama to personally lobby senators against it. It was narrowly rejected.

How quickly the House will act on the fast-track legislation depends on when the GOP leadership thinks it has enough votes for passage. With control of both chambers of Congress, Republican leaders will have little trouble moving things along speedily.

Time is pressing on Obama. Assuming fast-track is approved in June, analysts say, negotiators could wrap up the Pacific trade deal in July. The fast-track legislation calls for the president to wait 90 days for people to review the agreement before he signs it. Then it could take another two to three months for U.S. trade officials to prepare an economic-impact assessment of the deal, pushing a vote on the trade agreement by Congress into late this year at the earliest.

The longer it takes, the more it will bump up against the 2016 presidential campaign and election-year politics, when sensitive issues like trade can complicate legislation. So while getting fast-track through Congress may be the biggest hurdle for Obama in his bid to finish the trade pact, analysts say, a successful House vote doesn’t necessarily mean a smooth path ahead.

(c)2015 Tribune Co. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo: Jonathon Coleman via Flickr