The House Passes the TPA, again
House leaders separated the TPA from the TAA this week by moving TPA into H.R. 2146, a bill about the retirement funds of federal law enforcement officers and firefighters. The old provisions of the bill were retained when TPA was added to the end of this bill. This combined bill now goes to the Senate. (In fact, it goes back to the Senate. H.R. 2146 had previous passed the House and the Senate, but the Senate passed it with a technical change — see our summary. Rather than concurring in the Senate’s technical change, the House added TPA.)
The Senate will now have to decide whether to approve the House’s addition of TPA to H.R. 2146. But this is a removal of TAA from the original package deal. Senate Democrats may balk, but they may not have the numbers to vote the bill down.
This is the second vote in the House on TPA. The last vote was on the Senate’s Trade Act, H.R. 1314, that combined TPA and TAA. Although House Democrats support TAA, they voted against it last week to tank the whole bill (see our previous coverage and full explanation of TPA, TAA, and TPP). By doing so, they gave House Republicans the opportunity to pass the TPA alone and risk losing the one part of the trade deal they supported.
Why do you think the House version does not contain the immigration language?