[CTC] Bipartisan irritation with Reid’s plan to block trade deals

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Bipartisan irritation with Reid’s plan to block trade deals

By Burgess Everett and Manu Raju 

5/4/15 7:21 PM EDT
Pro-trade lawmakers in both parties expressed irritation with Sen. Harry Reid on Monday after the Nevada Democrat said he would block any new trade deals until Republicans approve new infrastructure legislation and reform the PATRIOT Act.

The Senate minority leader said in an interview with The Huffington Post that he isn’t “willing to lay over and play dead on trade” until he has assurances that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will deal with deadlines on transportation and surveillance legislation, both of which expire at the end of the month.

“McConnell said he wanted to move to trade in the next two or three weeks … but I don’t think he’s going to have an easy time doing it, because I will not let him do that,” he said in the interview. “He’s going to have to work around me and the caucus.”

Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who worked with ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on trade promotion authority legislation that’s drawn some Democratic support, said if Reid follows through on his threat to whip against the measure, he will only be hurting President Barack Obama.

“It’s his president who wants this. I’m working my butt off to work with the president. And frankly the president happens to be right on it,” Hatch told reporters. Asked if he would be willing to pause on his trade bill until dealing with Reid’s concerns, Hatch shot back: “I don’t think we should wait.”

Reid has said he is a “hell no” on the new trade pacts and has also supported ending the intelligence community’s bulk data collection program. So his opposition to trade legislation and McConnell’s push for a five-and-a-half year extension of expiring PATRIOT Act provisions isn’t surprising. But his plans to cause problems on the floor will put more pressure on GOP leaders to finish a busy schedule by Memorial day, including an Iran review bill, the trade bills, a budget and surveillance legislation.

“He wants to see a path forward on the critical measures that actually expire at the end of this month before moving to trade which could take up the remaining floor time between now and then,” added Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Reid.

At the end of last year, Reid told <http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/harry-reids-new-mission-blocking-crazy-stuff-113452.html> POLITICO he’s “not going to stand in the way” of President Obama’s push to get the trade deals done.

Hatch added that he was closing in on finding enough money for a long-term highway bill but said he would need a short-term extension through the end of the year to finish the job. The federal highways program will run out of money in July, and policy governing the national infrastructure programs runs out at the end of May.

Reid will need to keep a tight grip on his caucus to fend off approval of the fast-track trade bill, and not all Democrats are ready to filibuster the measures. Republicans need to pick off at least six Democrats to break a filibuster, possibly against the wishes of Reid’s whipping operation later this month.

“That’s not my preference,” said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) of Reid’s strategy. He added that he will vote to break a filibuster on the fast-track bill.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the member of Democratic leadership seen as most likely to back the president and Republicans’ trade proposals, said she hadn’t made a final decision.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said.

Doug Palmer contributed to this report.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20150504/bbc92efa/attachment.htm>