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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHouse to vote on Thursday for a Second Time to Give Obama Fast-Track Authority--The Hill
House to vote for a second time on fast-track for Obama
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/245284-white-house-open-to-separate-fast-track-trade-assistance-bills
By Jordan Fabian - 06/17/15 02:09 PM EDT
The decision follows a flurry of activity at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, as the White House and congressional Republicans rally around a strategy for moving forward with the trade package.
Under the plan, the House and Senate would vote for a second time on passing fast-track, which would make it easier for Obama to negotiate a sweeping Pacific trade deal.
Separately, Congress would approve legislation granting aid to workers displaced by trade, a program known as Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA).
The problem for Obama and Republicans is that they must first convince Senate Democrats to vote for fast-track on the promise the TAA bill would be finished later.
Obama met at the White House on Wednesday with a group pro-trade Democrats from the House and Senate as he sought to make the case.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Wednesday signaled Obama is open to Congress sending him the two measures separately.
Earnest said both measures must be delivered to Obamas desk.
The only legislative strategy the president can support is one that will result in both pieces of legislation arriving at his desk, he said.
But he said they did not need to be packaged together and did not comment on timing.
There is also this fundamental question ... about whether or not they need to arrive at the same time, on the same day, as part of the same legislative vehicle or separately. That's exactly what's being discussed on Capitol Hill right now, Earnest said.
He also dodged a question on whether Obama would veto fast-track legislation that did not come alongside the workers' assistance bill, saying, I dont think its going to come to that.
Getting fast-track done before the TAA bill could make it easier to pass the latter measure.
In the House, Democrats, who have typically backed TAA, voted it down last week as a way of killing fast-track. Both measures had to be approved under the floor procedure set up by House Republicans.
If the fast-track bill were already law, it would take away the incentive for House Democrats to vote against TAA.
In the House, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) told The Hill that Democrats who voted for fast-track in last week's vote are willing to do so again.
In the Senate, it's not as clear that pro-trade Democrats are ready to endorse the new strategy.
The White House has been in constant communication with lawmakers since the trade package failed Friday. The president has spoken on the phone with members of Congress, mostly Democrats, as recently as Wednesday morning.
On Wednesday evening, Obama will host lawmakers including House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) for a congressional picnic on the South Lawn of the White House. But Earnest has said there wont be arm-twisting on trade at the event.
He brushed aside a suggestion the event will be awkward because of the divide between Obama and Democrats on trade. Its a goodwill gesture and a purely social occasion, Earnest said.
But Earnest also took a jab at Pelosi, whom the president has not spoken to since she voted to derail his trade package last Friday.
The people who are most relevant to trying to finding this path forward are people who are part of the bipartisan majority that have allowed this legislation to advance," he said. She doesnt want the legislation to advance.
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/245284-white-house-open-to-separate-fast-track-trade-assistance-bills
djean111
(14,255 posts)I wonder if Dimon is picking up the tab for the picnic.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)various people cover when they run for re-election, or whether folks will stand firm and block it again.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Unfortunately he has a Left Wing "Trade" Supporter on who is dominating the Conversation...but he does have a Good Progressive against Two Free Traders who don't listen to FACTS.
We shall see how this turns out in the "Twists & Turns" of the TPA/TPP.
Legacy DU'ers have seen this Show before.......
We have to hope that our Group Coalitions Fighting this will Hang Tight and that it won't be the "Giveaway Cave" that we suspect it might be.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)kabuki theater indeed.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)has "TPP" as an Issue moving forward... OR.....Obama got the Votes with Arm Twisting and he and Dems (who almost all voted against the TPP part of the Bill, last round) feel Hillary can run on Passing TPP as a Crown Jewel of Dems in WH for 8 Years or Hillary's little Tap that she supported Pelosi on TPP made our Dem Centrists feel that "TPP" is Toxic to Hillary and if we want a Dem President then they need to BACK OFF the "TPP" passing.
Repubs might be feeling heat because their "Tea Party" doesn't want it, either.
So either it's "Get it Out of the Way" and focus on passing with New President of Either Party in 2016...(meanwhile holding off the countries wrath who were waiting for it to pass...promising them just a delay) because Passing "TPP" is too Toxic for Either Party...
OR....Ram "TPP" down our throats and say "BOTH PARTIES AGREED" so Cough it Down.
Who Knows.......But, to push the vote this fast when just a couple days ago they were holding off until the end of June or July means SOMETHING is AFOOT.
KABUKI THEATER?
KoKo
(84,711 posts)House advances trade promotion re-vote for early Thursday afternoon
By Cristina Marcos
Greg Nash
The House Thursday morning easily cleared a procedural hurdle to re-vote later in the day on giving President Obama fast-track authority to seal trade deals.
A "rule" that sets parameters for floor debate passed on a vote of 244-181. Only one Republican voted against it, while seven pro-trade Democrats broke party lines to support the rule.
The lack of fanfare for Thursday's rule vote stood in contrast to last week, when 34 Republicans nearly derailed the rule for considering the trade package. Eight Democrats ultimately voted at the last minute to save it.
Rules are votes of party discipline, as they are essentially a referendum on the majority party's strategy of handling legislation on the floor.
The House is now slated to vote early Thursday afternoon on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA).
TPA passed last week, but the House failed to pass an aid package that was procedurally tied to it. The same 28 Democrats who pushed TPA to passage are expected to support it again Thursday despite the lack of a simultaneous vote on the aid measure.
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/245404-house-advances-trade-re-vote