Fast Track news, House and Senate (plus a nice infographic)
by Gaius Publius
Paul Ryan now thinks he can get Fast Track passed in the House:
Republicans claim enough votes to pass fast-track trade bill
Top Republicans predicted on Sunday that both chambers of Congress would muster the votes to pass the “fast-track” authority sought by President Barack Obama to negotiate major trade deals, despite opposition from Obama’s fellow Democrats.
“Yes, we’ll pass it. We’ll pass it later this week,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview with ABC.
Republican U.S. Representative Paul Ryan said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he was confident the measure would also pass the House of Representatives.
“We will have the votes,” said Ryan, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. “We’re doing very well. We’re gaining a lot of steam and momentum.”
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren is leading the charge in the Senate. In addition to releasing her own report — Broken Promises: Decades of Failure to Enforce Labor Standards in Free Trade Agreements (pdf and a good read) — she’s unleashing a barrage of amendments in the Senate:
Elizabeth Warren fires new shot in trade battle with President Obama
… Warren is also highlighting labor concerns with the more than half-dozen
amendments she submitted to the trade legislation. For example, she
proposed a measure that would end TPA if the Labor Department does not
investigate accusations of labor violations by a country in a trade
agreement.She also filed a proposal that would terminate TPA depending on the
level of the U.S. trade deficit with partnering countries, as well as
another amendment aimed at ending TPA in January 2017 — cutting the
current length of the “fast-track” powers from six years to about two.Backed
by about more than a dozen Senate Democrats, Warren and Sen. Heidi
Heitkamp (D-N.D.) are also pushing an amendment that bars “fast-track”
powers to be used on trade deals that include the so-called
investor-state dispute settlement provision. That obscure language
allows companies to sue governments over decisions that harm their
foreign investments — which Warren argues could force U.S. taxpayers to
pick up the tab for those settlements.
Heidi Heitkamp made the list of TPP proponents, so getting her name on the anti-ISDS amendment is a bit of a coup for Warren and a testament to her coalition-building skills.
Whether McConnell will allow amendments, something he promised Reid he would do, is your guess. The article above closes with this: “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told ABC on Sunday that the chamber will finish the trade legislation this week.” How he does that with these and other amendments queued up is beyond me.
Why Fast Track should fail
In addition to the reason expressed here, the need to defeat Fast Track for any trade legislation is neatly encapsulated in this infographic:
Suitable for sharing, should you care to.
GP
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