In anticipation of this vote, Cruz publicly urged Congress to vote in favor of fast-track authority.
“Congress needs to strengthen the country’s bargaining position by establishing trade-promotion authority, also known as TPA, which is an arrangement between Congress and the president for negotiating and considering trade agreements. In short, TPA is what U.S. negotiators need to win a fair deal for the American worker,” Cruz and Ryan said in their Wall Street Journal op-ed.
Cruz and Ryan also pitched the passage as an important step toward helping the domestic workforce. “TPA is what U.S. negotiators need to win a fair deal for the American worker,” they said. “One in five American jobs depends on trade, and that share is only going to grow.”
On May 22, Trade Promotion Authority passed the Senate 62-37 with bipartisan support. Cruz was among the 48 Republicans and 14 Democrats who voted “yes.”
Again, the TPA bill that passed the Senate in May died in the House. The House drafted a new TPA bill and sent it to the Senate. The House bill was not the same bill that Cruz supported. When the House bill arrived in the Senate, Cruz spoke out against it. He penned an editorial in Breitbart explaining his stance. He then voted against cloture, and against the bill’s passage. So the bill you cite is not the bill that Obama signed. It is a completely different bill.