[CTC] Pro-Fast Track Democrats huddle over strategy

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Pro-trade Democrats huddle over fast-track strategy

By Jake Sherman and Lauren French 

6/17/15 1:48 PM EDT
President Barack Obama’s trade agenda now hinges on a handful of key House and Senate Democrats who are weighing whether to buck party leaders and join a last-ditch GOP effort to resuscitate the stalled proposal.

In a flurry of meetings and back-channel conversations, Democrats are debating what demands they should make to Republican leaders to get behind the GOP’s emerging plan. Republicans are preparing a new round of House and Senate votes to pass a "fast-track" trade bill and worker aid package, which would pave the way for the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership.

House Democrats blocked the White House trade initiative last week in a dramatic repudiation of President Barack Obama. Since then, GOP leaders have been busy devising a Plan B to overcome that opposition. Their current strategy, in a nutshell, is to separate the fast track bill, known as trade promotion authority, from Trade Adjustment Assistance, the worker aid package that Democrats voted down in order to derail the entire package.

Pro-trade House and Senate Democrats are planning to meet Wednesday afternoon to discuss their legislative options. Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), who is leading his party’s trade push, has invited White House officials, along with Senate and House Democrats who voted to grant Obama fast-track trade authority, “so all three groups can be talking to one another,” according to an email sent by the executive director for the New Democrat Coalition, a group of moderate Democrats.

House Speaker John Boehner’s plan, as laid out to several aides and lawmakers, would attempt to pass TPA as a standalone bill. The Senate, meanwhile, would amend a trade “preferences” bill with TAA, the job-training and program that was defeated on the House floor last week.

But Democrats want several assurances before moving forward.

For one, pro-trade House Democrats want to be sure that if they back a fast-track bill without the worker aid measure, like-minded Senate Democrats will also vote for it. Senate Democrats want a promise that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Boehner will agree to amend the preferences bill with an extension of the expiring TAA program, a key Democratic priority.

Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who co-authored the Senate bill, said in an interview that Republicans would move to include the worker aid program in the trade preferences plan. That’s the cost to of winning critical Democratic support for fast-track, which would prohibit Congress from making changes to the TPP, Hatch said.

“I don’t think there’s any question we’d do that,” he said. “That’s part of the deal. We know the quid pro quo for TPA is TAA.”

Wednesday’s discussions could be pivotal. Senior GOP aides say the House Rules Committee might meet Wednesday afternoon to begin crafting the procedure for another TPA vote.  

On the Senate side, one potentially pivotal Democrat isn’t saying what she’d do.


Sen. Patty Murray, who represents Washington state, home of corporate giants like Boeing that are clamoring for a trade deal, said Wednesday that she wants both trade adjustment and TPA to pass and “hopefully the House can figure out how to make that happen.”

Murray has spoken with Obama in recent days, but she would not say whether she’ll back the House’s latest gambit.

“I’m not going to answer ‘if’ questions right now,” Murray said tersely.

There is little margin for error after last week’s stunning events in the House. Democrats, led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, moved to block a program they support — TAA — in order to prevent the fast-track trade bill from landing on Obama’s desk. But TAA is a bottom-line demand for the 14 Senate Democrats who voted last month to pass the fast-track bill, and Obama can only afford to lose two of those votes if he wants to see his priority enacted.

That makes the decision on how to sequence the votes in Congress a key consideration. Some top Republicans believe it makes sense to enact the fast-track bill first, prompting House Democrats to let TAA pass since it would be much harder at that point to use as leverage. But it’s no sure bet that Senate Democrats would go along with a vote on fast-track without immediate consideration of the worker aid package.

“What I can tell you is having talked to the pro-trade Democratic senators is they feel very strongly that both TPA and TAA actually happen, and that’s what they’re asking about,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a leading trade supporter.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday that Obama would only back a plan that includes the worker aid program.

“What we have said is that the only legislative strategy that the president can support is one that will result in both pieces of legislation arriving at his desk,” Earnest said.

Some Senate Democrats are upset with the turn of events.

Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, who voted for the trade package, said it’s “disingenuous for someone who supports TPA to say they are opposed to TAA.”

“I think what happened in the House just shows when you try to be cute and play games, it will come back and it’s not going to work,” Cardin, a progressive Democrat, added.

Still, Cardin said he wants all the outstanding trade bills — a customs enforcement package, TAA and TPA, the preferences bill — included in one large measure, otherwise “you going to have a hard time getting votes.”

“Why are we protecting people on votes? ” he added. “You think people are that naive?” Cardin said.

 
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