ALERT: Senate Democrats agree to pass TPP

Democrats yield in Senate trade deal

The agreement would give Democrats a chance to vote on two of their trade priorities as standalone bills.

Politico,

13 May, 2015. 11:54 AM EDT,

The Senate’s trade war lasted just about a day.

After Democrats engineered a stunning defeat of President Barack Obama’s push for new trade deals on Tuesday, negotiators hashed out a compromise that offered both parties a way to save face without scuttling the administration’s trade agenda. At the least, the agreement means the Senate is likely to pass new powers for the president to fast-track trade pacts through Congress.

But Democrats failed to guarantee enactment of their priorities by attaching them to the fast-track bill. Instead, Democratic measures that would crack down on currency manipulators and expand trade with Africa will get stand-alone votes on Thursday. The currency provisions, in particular, face an uncertain future in the House even if they pass the Senate and are unlikely to become law.

Under the deal announced Wednesday by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate will also vote Thursday to open debate on the trade promotion authority fast-track measure that’s linked with Trade Adjustment Assistance, which is intended to help workers who lose their jobs as a result of expanded trade.

That vote should succeed now that party leaders have struck an agreement. But final passage won’t come till next week at the earliest.

Other than locking in votes on a customs enforcement bill that includes the currency manipulation language and the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which provides duty-free access for sub-Saharan African countries to sell many goods in the United States, it’s unclear what else Democrats gained from Tuesday’s showdown.

“These deals were offered to them early yesterday,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, No. 3 in the Republican leadership. “They just got throttled: ‘President rebuked. Democrats defy president. President thwarted.’ Those were the headlines this morning. That was a terrible place for them to be. They overplayed their hand.”

Labor groups, who’ve been fighting new trade pacts, chided Democrats for not standing firm until all their demands were met.

“What they demanded yesterday, they should continue to demand today,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “Those who want to get trade right must demand that fast track doesn’t move unless currency and other enforcement tools are included in the package. Anything less leaves America’s workers, domestic producers and communities behind.”

But Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), a trade bill opponent, may have done all he could to keep his party united. There are about 15 Democrats who support expanding trade deals, and forcing them to keep blocking the fast-track bill was untenable.

Anti-trade Democrats argued their resistance in the Senate should bolster House Democrats who are also wary of new trade agreements.

At the least, their efforts will make it much harder for McConnell to finish the bill before the Memorial Day recess. Senators from both parties are sure to offer amendments to the fast-track measure and the trade assistance bill, which will take days if not weeks to complete.

That means a scheduling crunch for Republicans, who still have to deal with expiring highway and surveillance laws and are getting jammed by the House with a PATRIOT Act reform law that McConnell loathes.

And Democrats argued that locking in votes on all four major trade provisions was a victory. Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) had agreed in April to bring up those measures, only to run into a more reluctant McConnell, who publicly offered them an open amendment process but did not explicitly commit to holding votes on Democrats’ priorities until Wednesday afternoon.

“This was discussed weeks ago,” said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who tangled with McConnell on the Senate floor on Monday.

Nelson then pointed to two points on his arm just inches apart. “Sometimes to get from here to there, you have to go all the way around your elbow,” he quipped.

Holding the additional votes would “not imperil” the fast-track bill, McConnell said. 

Republicans, pro-trade Democrats and the president all say the trade promotion authority measure, which would allow the president to submit trade pacts to Congress for an up-or-down vote without amendments, is vital for approving a huge Pacific Rim trade agreement currently being negotiated by the administration.

But mixing in the customs enforcement bill and its currency manipulation language was a bridge too far.

“We have to take some of these votes separately or we kill the underlying legislation,” McConnell said. “It’s reasonable, and I look forward to our colleagues from across the aisle joining with us.”

Reid thanked McConnell for locking in votes that Democrats had been pining for.

“I think we’ve come up with something that’s fair,” Reid said.

Earlier, Reid and the No. 3 Democrat, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, had floated a plan to vote on the trade bills as a single package, including the fast-track authority viewed as critical to Obama, but without a currency manipulation provision that could kill the bill in the House.

That was summarily rejected by Republicans as yet another attempt by Democrats to dictate McConnell’s agenda.

“That’s not acceptable,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) in an interview. “We’re not willing to change that deal. Plus we’re not willing to let Democrats run the place. They seem to think that they’re still in the majority and that Sen. Reid is the majority leader. He is not.”

Republicans said they’ve already compromised with pro-trade Democrats by adding Trade Adjustment Assistance to the fast-track trade promotion authority bill, so adding an African trade bill and a customs enforcement measure to the package — even without the poison-pill currency language — was never going to fly.

Republicans privately predicted that a customs bill stripped of problematic currency manipulation language would easily pass the Senate, as would the African Growth and Opportunity Act. But the customs bill could face a tough vote on Thursday since the currency language has been left in. Many pro-trade lawmakers and White House officials believe it could lead to designating China as a currency manipulator and harm the emerging pact on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

“If it has currency manipulation attached to it, it makes it harder,” Thune said.

GOP sources said it was highly likely that there will still be currency manipulation votes on the TPA bill; Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) has been assured by leadership that he will get a crack at his amendment.

Throughout the breakneck talks, GOP leaders were less interested in dealing with Reid and Schumer and tried to strike a deal with Democrats who could support the trade bills. But ultimately they were forced to deal with Reid and Schumer, who flexed their muscles during a stunning Tuesday vote that sent a message to the GOP that it would be impossible to move forward without their buy-in, even though they won’t ultimately support the trade bill.

“You have to remember, not everybody who’s making these proposals actually want us to pass TPA,” Cornyn said.

Though it may be impossible to finish the trade package this month, given the need to renew expiring laws before Memorial Day, lawmakers are scrambling to produce a result before the recess. Pro-trade Democrats were summoned to the White House on Tuesday afternoon after blocking the trade package, then met privately on Wednesday morning.

Hatch and Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), perhaps the pivotal Democrat on trade, never stopped talking about a way to break the logjam, Wyden said in an interview, even after Hatch lambasted Wyden for changing the terms of their deal on trade assistance and fast-track.

“We have been working with Democrats and Republicans pretty much nonstop since yesterday,” Wyden said. “Failing on this is completely unacceptable.”

Hatch was less enthused, even after it was clear his cherished trade bill would move forward. The octogenarian told reporters the whole episode had nearly driven him mad.

“I’m about ready to kill somebody,” he said as he entered the Senate chamber to vote and hear the particulars of the agreement.