Posted on 06/17/2015 6:25:54 AM PDT by Red Badger
Dropping Trade Adjustment Assistance risks losing Democratic support for the larger trade deal.
The House is on the brink of scheduling a standalone vote on giving President Barack Obama fast-track trade authority without accompanying worker assistance legislation, according to multiple sources familiar with the plan.
The House could vote on Trade Promotion Authority as early as this week, the sources said. The House Rules Committee, which sets parameters for the consideration of legislation, meets late Tuesday afternoon. A final decision has not been made, and top Congressional aides are in negotiations to chart a course forward. Boehner was set to meet with pro-trade Democrats at 3 p.m.
Under the current plan, House Republican leadership would likely use an already-approved Senate bill to move fast-track authority, which would allow Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) chamber to avoid a round of votes.
The Senate would amend a trade “preferences” bill with Trade Adjustment Assistance, a job-training and worker aid program, and send it to the House. This would serve to separate the two key priorities, and allow them to be sent to Obama’s desk separately.
The vote would certainly be a gamble. House Republicans would need Democrats to pass the legislation, and it’s not clear how many of them would vote for a fast-track bill without a measure to help workers who lose their jobs to trade directly attached. TAA failed last week after 144 Democrats voted against it.
“It’s going to be shared responsibility to get this done,” said Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), a leading Democratic supporter of TPA. “It’s going to require bipartisan effort, both sides willing to cooperate a little bit more than what we’ve had so far. I know there’s all eyes on the [Democratic] Caucus right now on TAA, but last time I checked, 48 Senate Republicans voted for TAA when it came up with TPA. So there’s a strong Republican support, at least in the Senate, of getting TPA passed with their votes.”
It’s not clear, however, that fast-track authority can muster enough support in the Senate without the job-training legislation.
Trade supporters don’t have many other options. Obama is unlikely to be able to flip the necessary 75 Democratic votes to pass the TPA-TAA package they crafted last week.
“It has now been abandoned, essentially,” House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said of efforts to pass TAA. “I think the thought was we can cobble together the votes for it and then send [the legislation] to the president. I think clearly they concluded that was not going to work.”
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who sees the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement as crucial, said he and Obama spoke “several” times Monday about a path forward. He is weighing how to proceed.
“There are a lot of options on the table,” Boehner said Tuesday, when asked about moving TPA on its own.
Meanwhile, the House moved Tuesday to preserve last week’s fast-track vote. Embedded in a procedural vote Tuesday was language that allows Boehner to bring up the TAA vote any time before July 30. That resolution passed, 236-189, with six Republicans voting no.
They are desperate to screw American workers 365/24/7.
Every day that goes by with Americans not getting the BOHICA is a day that Ryan, Boehner, McConnel, and Obama weep in frustration.
Please help end their misery....put them out of their misery: Vote to Impoverish Americans Today!
“It is amazing how these Congressional clowns can come up with all sorts of angles when they want to, but throw their hands up in defeat against Obama and his actions.”
Its because they love Obama doing their dirty work.
He did the heavy lifting for the RINOs on amnesty and ObamaCare.
Dear GOP
Do this and I shall NEVER VOTE FOR ANYONE WHO WEARS THE REPUBLICAN LABEL.
Do it.
Go ahead, lose my vote forever.
Go on, you know you want to.
PS: Ted Cruz, leave the GOP or I won’t be able to vote for you.
Personally I don’t think the Dems will go for it. But Boehner has promised Barry he will try.
There are a lot of creepy things going on. Why is everything so secretive and rushed? Because those in power want to stay in power, and they want more of it.
You can always write him in.............;^)
You do know don’t you that Cruz voted in favor of fast track?
heads they win, tails we lose.
The game of government is rigged.
Senator Cruz is wise
He acts for the country deflecting the howls of the ignorati
I know what he did, why he did it, and it’s not as dire as some people state. This is a nuanced area of politics. There are flavors, stages and so on.
I will be happy to debate the merits (or lack of) in passing fact track at this time. If you want.
“TPP is separating us from the U.S. Constitution and from national sovereignty and replacing both with a global governance superstructure. TPP has wrapped its audacious global governance plan in the mantle called “free trade,” which is a misnomer if there ever were one.
“Free trade” means Americans must obey a bunch of rules written by foreigners (which we can’t veto), but China can ignore those rules. TPP didn’t even touch the subject of currency manipulation against us by Asian countries.
While the American people are denied the right to read TPP, thanks to leaks from WikiLeaks we have learned that Obamatrade includes 10 pages to unilaterally alter our current U.S. immigration law. Sen. Sessions says TPP will give Obama a backdoor to increase immigration, and the same lobbyists who are pushing for Obamatrade are demanding open borders.
Republicans need a bold program to bring back jobs that have been lost to Asian countries. Michele Bachmann summed up a pro-American verdict on TPP: “I hate it. It would empower the president, cut out congressional influence and lead to American jobs leaving the U.S.”
http://www.wnd.com/2015/06/no-wonder-obama-wont-let-us-read-tpp/
I don’t understand TPA has already passed the House so why vote on it again? I do agree that TPA sans TAA will get no supports from the Rats. Hopefully their are enough Rs loyal to the county to stop TPA at this time.
I’d like to see this whole trade deal sidelined until we get a new President. Hopefully GOP.
The free trader/CofC lobby and all of their bought and paid for politicians are just salivating over this whole TPP deal.
The only thing getting in the way is that nasty TAA thing. The free trader/CofC lobby want all of the goodies that TPP will enrich them with, and dump all of the wreckage of lost jobs and industrial wastelands. They want the chump taxpayers to deal with that mess.
The free trader/CofC crowd learned their lessons from NAFTA, because that agreement also had its own TAA. It cost companies and the government (ie: us taxpayers) billions to retrain workers in jobs that are now in jeopardy by this trade deal. This time around, they just want to do away with all of that, and dump the newly unemployed off on the taxpayers yet again, and permanently marginalize them.
The fact that the limousine liberals and country club republicans are viciously trying to ram this through should be setting off all sorts of alarm bells in the minds of Americans.
If TPA passes, then TPP will be a done deal, and as a nation we will be the worse for it. Think of the EU on steroids, with the chinese in charge, and you'll get the idea of where we're headed.
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