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Obama's bid for 'fast track' negotiating authority survives key Senate vote Obama's bid for 'fast track' negotiating authority survives key Senate vote
(35 minutes later)
Barack Obama’s trade agenda has survived a crucial Senate vote and seems well-positioned to become law. Global free trade talks were shunted back on track on Tuesday after the US Senate voted by the tightest of margins for a procedural motion that deprives Democratic opponents of their last big chance to block White House negotiating authority.
The Senate voted 60-37 on Tuesday to begin full-blown debate on Obama’s request for so-called “fast track” negotiating authority, which would make trade deals such as the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the EU possible. That was the exact number needed to avoid a filibuster. The cloture vote, which needed 60 votes to end debate and passed by 60 to 37, marks the conclusion of an unexpectedly spirited fight against free trade by a coalition of Democrats and union interests concerned at the decline of US manufacturing.
The vote continued a revival process that began last week when Obama’s trade allies resurrected the legislative package in the House and won a crucial vote there. But it represents a victory for Barack Obama, who had been forced to join forces with Republicans after two earlier refusals to give him fast-track negotiating authority threatened to derail not just his trade agenda but the future of wider talks involving dozens of Asian and European countries.
Previous presidents have enjoyed fast track authority. It lets them propose trade pacts that Congress can reject or ratify but not change. If, as expected, the Senate also votes in favour of final passage of the trade promotion authority (TPA) on Wednesday – a vote that requires only a straight majority of 51 rather that the 60 needed for cloture – it will reach the president’s desk for his signature by the end of the week.
Unions strongly oppose it. They say free-trade deals cost US jobs. Without this so-called “fast-track” authority, which guarantees a simple majority vote when the final trade deals return to Congress, the future of both the Transpacific Partnership (TPP) talks with Asia and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with Europe were in jeopardy.
Obama and most GOP leaders say US products must reach more markets. Nevertheless, the tactics needed to overcome Democratic opposition in the Senate and House of Representatives may possibly leave Obama facing one last break with his party when he signs the bill.
In order to respond to recent defeat in the House of Representatives, the bill’s managers stripped out accompanying Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) legislation designed to compensate US workers hit by cheap foreign imports.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell promised this would still get a chance to pass as a separate bill later in the week.
“If we trust each other and work together, by the end of the week the president will have TPA and TAA … on his desk,” said McConnell.
But there is no guarantee enough Republicans in either the House or Senate will back such legislation, which many of them regarding as outdated and unnecessary intervention in the free market.
For this, and other reasons, Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown called Tuesday’s cloture vote “shameful”, arguing his colleagues were giving up their last chance to exert leverage over the trade negotiations.
Thirteen Democrats joined Republicans in voting for cloture on TPA, including a number of moderates who had previously opposed a package that included TAA when it passed the Senate in May.
Conversely, five Republicans – including presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Rand Paul – joined minority leader Mitch McConnell, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and 30 others in voting against cloture.
Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who has led the pro-trade wing of the party, insisted there would be no betrayal on the outstanding issue of trade adjustment assistance, following positive talks with House Republican Paul Ryan on Monday night.
“TAA is an absolutely must pass bill and I am confident it is going to get through Congress to the president’s desk,” said Wyden.