<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;" class="">POLITICO </span></b><br class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;" class=""> </span></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;" class="">Ways and Means Committee approves TPA bill with only two Democrats<o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">4/23/15 7:55 PM EDT<o:p class=""></o:p></div></div><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The House Ways and Means Committee has approved a bill to give President Barack Obama trade promotion authority by a 25-13 vote, with only two Democrats joining the 23 Republicans on the panel in support of the measure.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The meager Democratic support highlights the tougher battle the controversial legislation faces in the House than the Senate. However, senior Republicans have expressed confidence there will be enough votes to approve the bill when it heads to a full floor vote.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The Senate Finance Committee approved the "fast track" trade package Wednesday night on a 20-6 vote. Seven Democrats joined 13 Republicans in support of the bill to help the White House finish the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The two Ways and Means Democrats who voted for the bill were Rep. Ron Kind of Wisconsin and Rep. Earl Blumenhauer of Oregon. Ten other Democrats off the panel have indicated their support for the bill and supporters still hope that number will grow, despite the opposition of senior Ways and Means Democrats.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Committee Chairman Paul Ryan successfully defended the carefully-crafted deal he reached with the top Republican and Democrat on the Finance Committee.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The Republican-led panel rejected 19 amendments offered by Democrats in areas including protection of labor rights, China's currency practices and procedures for handling investment disputes. Ryan barred a vote on a complete substitute offered by the panel's senior Democrat, Sander Levin, on the grounds it violated House jurisdictional rules.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><em class="">— Doug Palmer</em></p></body></html>