The US House of Representatives on Thursday last week approved a bill to give US President Barack Obama accelerated negotiating authority to pursue a sweeping, legacy-building trade agreement with 11 Pacific Rim nations, the first part of a complex legislative strategy devised by Republicans to get a trade package to Obama’s desk after Democrats derailed the measure in the House last week.
However, many of the 14 Senate Democrats who have already voted for a trade package are withholding their support until they secure guarantees that worker protection from the effects of a trade deal — included in the original Senate bill — would also be passed in the House.
“There are a variety of different approaches,” said Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, who has been instrumental in drafting the trade deals.
Illustration: Yusha
“The pro-trade Democrats have been through a lot of hits now,” he added, referring to the intense pressure from labor to reject any trade deal.
Last week, the House rejected the worker protection program, called trade adjustment assistance — part of an effort by Democrats to undermine the overall trade package.
BILL ADDITIONS
Led by Republicans, with the support of nearly 30 Democrats who back the trade deal, the House passed the trade promotion authority (TPA) measure on Thursday by 218 votes to 208, with a promise to take up the assistance bill again in a new form. Republicans plan to tuck the worker assistance components into a non-contentious trade preference bill related to Africa in the US Senate and send it back to the House for final passage.
Many members are also pondering other additions to the bill, such as extending the charter of the federal Export-Import Bank, now under threat of expiration. These would most likely be opposed by some Republicans.
Late on Thursday, Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell added a component to the trade bill that would help steelworkers, a move that would potentially benefit both Democrats and Republicans representing the Midwest who are up for re-election.
“Republicans are working with Democrats in the House and Senate to pass trade promotion authority,” Republican House Speaker John Boehner said at a news conference on Thursday.
“I’m confident that we are in a pretty good place,” he added, saying that he expected the package, complete with the trade adjustment measure, to be complete next week.
The votes are essential for Obama to pursue the broader Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement with 11 other nations along the Pacific, a deal that would affect 40 percent of the global economy.
Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi criticized the Republicans’ approach, saying it would hinder the ability to address possible negative climate change implications in the broader trade bill. “This has been a long-standing difference within the Democratic Party,” she said.
Asked if both the trade promotion and trade assistance provisions could pass in the House, Pelosi said: “I don’t think so, no.”
Before the vote, Democrats argued that they needed more time to consider the implications of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The bill passed by the House on Thursday would give the president protections from US Congress’ amending or filibustering any trade accord negotiated for the next six years.
“We’re called protectionists; we’re called unreasonable,” Illinois Democratic Representative Jan Schakowsky said, adding that Democrats could support a trade bill later. “Rather than these fancy parliamentary manipulations... we should take the time to fix it.”
However, some Democrats warned that if the Senate and the House both passed the trade promotion authority measure and then killed the assistance program, Obama could opt to simply sign the bill to give him the fast-track negotiating authority.
Having him do so — absent the worker protection program that Democrats have championed for years — means that Democrats would essentially be killing a program they long supported, yet they would still be getting a trade bill scores of them despise.
“If the president signs TPA, they’re going to have a lot of explaining to do,” said Democratic Senator Tom Carper, who supports the trade measures.
Of particular worry is Washington Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell, who has been desperately trying to find a way to save the Export-Import Bank, the 70-year-old federal export credit agency that has been demonized by conservatives as an instrument of crony capitalism. Demanding a vote on preventing the expiration of the bank’s congressional authorization would certainly drive away many Republicans; Cantwell has been cool on the latest plan to pass the trade measure.
However, other Democrats are also worried.
“There is widespread concern among pro-trade Democrats that the strategy relies on the speaker,” said Delaware Democratic Senator Chris Coons, who has his own concern.
He does not want to imperil the African trade program that the assistance measure would go into, a pet issue for him.
Boehner could find other ways. He could structure the votes in a way that would make his own party’s cooperation more likely, or provide assurances that Republicans would make sure the trade adjustment measure passes.
FAST-TRACK AUTHORITY
Democrats have another incentive to get this done — something to show for the enormous pressure they are already getting from unions and environmental groups that dislike trade deals.
“Democrats who allowed the passage of fast-track authority for the job-killing TPP should know that we will not lift a finger or raise a penny to protect you when you’re attacked in 2016. We will encourage our progressive allies to join us in leaving you to rot, and we will actively search for opportunities to primary you with a real Democrat,” liberal group Democracy for America chairman Jim Dean said in a prepared statement.
“Those primaries could happen next year, or they could happen in election cycles to come, but, make no mistake, we will make certain that your vote to fast-track the destruction of American jobs will be remembered and will haunt you for years to come,” the statement said.
The White House reiterated that it would push for approval.
“The president has been clear that he wants both TPA and TAA [Trade Agreements Act] at his desk for his signature as soon as possible,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said. “The only strategy that we support moving through Congress is one that includes both of those pieces getting to his desk for his signature.”
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