[CTC] House Sends Trade Bill Back to Senate in Bid to Outflank Foes

[Arthur Stamoulis]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/business/house-sends-trade-bill-back-to-senate-in-bid-to-outflank-foes.html <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/business/house-sends-trade-bill-back-to-senate-in-bid-to-outflank-foes.html>
 
 
House Sends Trade Bill Back to Senate in Bid to Outflank Foes

 
The New York Times
By Jennifer Steinhauer
June 18, 2015
 
WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday again approved a measure to give President Obama accelerated negotiating authority to pursue a sweeping, legacy-building trade agreement with 11 Pacific Rim nations, part one of a complex legislative strategy devised by Republicans to get a trade package to Mr. Obama’s desk.

Led by Republicans, with the support of a few Democrats who support the trade deal, the House passed the trade promotion authority measure, 218 to 208. It will now be sent back to the Senate, where a more narrow band of Republicans and Democrats will be asked to approve it after already passing their own bill that included protection for workers, a provision favored by Democrats.

That measure, called trade adjustment assistance, was rejected by the House last week, part of an effort by Democrats there to undermine the overall trade package.

“Getting this work done is critical to expanding opportunities for American workers,” the House speaker, John A. Boehner, said at a news conference. “I’m confident that we are in a pretty good place,” he added, saying that he expected the package to be complete next week.

To persuade Senate Democrats to again pass the trade promotion measure, also known as fast-track authority, Republicans have decided to tuck the worker assistance components into a noncontentious trade preference bill related to Africa, and send it back to the House for final passage.

Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, criticized the Republicans’ approach, saying it would hinder the ability to address climate change and its connection to commerce through the broader trade bill. “This has been a longstanding difference within the Democratic Party <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/d/democratic_party/index.html?inline=nyt-org>,” she said.

Asked if both the trade promotion and trade assistance provisions could pass, Ms. Pelosi said, “I don’t think so, no.”

On the House floor Thursday morning, Democrats decried the strategy and the overall legislative package, arguing that the process should be slowed to give more consideration the complex bill.

“We’re called protectionists, we’re called unreasonable,” said Representative Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois, noting that Democrats could support a trade bill later. “Rather than these fancy parliamentary manipulations,” she said, “we should take the time to fix it.”

The calculation for Democrats is essentially this: Do they trust Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and majority leader, to lead fellow Republicans to vote for the noncontentious trade bill that includes the worker protection provision that many in their party dislike?

They also want to make sure that Mr. Boehner will bring up that measure once the Senate is done with it — most likely at the end of next week. Mr. Obama and Democrats aligned with him on trade have to support Mr. McConnell and Mr. Boehner, basically saying, “Trust us that we trust them.” Senate Democrats will also have to gamble that House Democrats will not again vote against the measure when it comes across the Rotunda.


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