[CTC] Obama to meet with pro-trade Dems at White House

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Rules cmte mtg this evening; House floor vote on Fast Track without TAA expected tomorrow.

POLITICO

Obama to meet with pro-trade Dems at White House

6/17/15 4:19 PM EDT
President Barack Obama will meet this afternoon with pro-trade Democrats as congressional leaders press forward with a new attempt to pass trade promotion authority and Trade Adjustment Assistance after a major setback last week in the House.

“As part of the administration's ongoing outreach on trade, the president will hold meetings today at the White House with pro-trade Democrats in the Senate and the House,” a White House official said.

Last week’s vote in the House threw the future of both TPA and TAA in doubt. While TPA passed 219-211, with 28 Democrats voting yes, a majority of Democrats joined with a majority of Republicans to block TAA. The way the vote was structured, both measures had to be approved for the bill to advance.

The House Rules Committee is expected to meet at 4:40 p.m. to consider a new rule aimed at approving the TPA and TAA bills along separate tracks. 

House Republicans are pushing toward a vote on a stand-alone TPA bill, which would also have to be approved in the Senate because that chamber passed a combined TPA-TAA bill last month. Democrats who supported TPA in the House and Senate want reassurance that TAA will also pass.

Sen. Ron Wyden, the chief Democratic architect of the TPA bill, will attend the White House meeting along with Rep. Ron Kind and other pro-trade Democrats from the House and the Senate, sources said.

— Doug Palmer


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20150617/3d50e76b/attachment.htm>