The White House and congressional lawmakers reached a deal on Tuesday to propel three coveted free-trade agreements toward a vote in Congress, although the fate of the pacts with South Korea, Colombia and Panama remained uncertain.
Crucial lawmakers from both parties struck an agreement with the administration to extend aid for US workers displaced by foreign trade. The White House, acknowledging protests from labor unions, had threatened to hold up passage of the pacts unless the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program would be renewed.
The process for ensuring passage of the trade deals and the assistance for workers was unclear on Tuesday.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said he planned to attach TAA to the South Korea deal, the largest and most desirable of the trade pacts, when his committee begins discussing the agreements today.
Top Republicans balked at that proposal. Senator Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on Baucus’ committee, said it was a “highly partisan decision” that “risks support for this critical job-creating trade pact in the name of a welfare program of questionable benefit at a time when our nation is broke.”
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he would oppose any trade deal in which the worker assistance program was embedded.
Republicans generally support both trade and worker assistance programs, so Baucus’ move could put the party’s lawmakers in the awkward position of either having to vote against issues that traditionally have their support or handing US President Barack Obama a victory on a top priority.
Baucus negotiated with House Ways and Means’ Republican Chairman Dave Camp and top White House economist Gene Sperling to reach a deal on the substance of the worker assistance. Their plan would make benefits available to service as well as manufacturing industries, provide money for retraining and make affordable healthcare available.
Camp said in a statement on Tuesday that the decision on how to move the trade deals and TAA through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives was an issue for Republican leaders to determine. A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican, said the worker assistance program should be dealt with separately from the trade agreements.
Obama frequently cites passage of the three trade deals as an economic imperative for the US. He has promoted the pacts as an opportunity to open overseas markets to US companies and make US products more attractive in the global marketplace.
“Now is the time to move forward with TAA and with the Korea, Colombia and Panama trade agreements,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said on Tuesday.
The pro-business US Chamber of Commerce, which often takes positions amenable to Republicans, also urged lawmakers to move quickly to pass the pacts.
“I urge members of both parties to seize a reasonable compromise and move the trade agenda forward. The time to act is now,” Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue said in a statement.
The TAA program was expanded two years ago as part of Obama’s stimulus package to include aid for more displaced workers, but the expansion expired in February. The extension agreed to in negotiations is smaller than the 2009 package and would continue through 2013.
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