Legislation giving U.S. President Barack Obama authority to speed trade deals through Congress failed a crucial procedural test on Tuesday, April 4, 2015, delaying a measure that may be key to President Barack Obama’s diplomatic pivot to Asia.
In a setback to the White House trade agenda, the Senate voted 52-45 – eight votes short of the necessary 60 – to clear the way for debate on the legislation, which would allow a quick decision on granting the president so-called fast track authority to move trade deals quickly through Congress.
The vote marked a big victory for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, an outspoken opponent of fast-track.
Negotiations on the TPP are nearly complete, but trading partners have said they want to see fast-track legislation enacted before finalizing the pact, which will stretch from Japan to Chile.
The Senate has rejected Obama’s fast-track authority for the TPP in a stunning victory for workers and the environment. Now it’s nearly impossible for the corporate trade deal to pass before Congress begins recess on Memorial Day.
Washington (CNN)
President Barack Obama’s free trade push was blocked in the Senate on Tuesday as Democrats rebelled, throwing one of his biggest priorities in his remaining years in the White House into doubt.
Roughly 14 pro-trade Democrats emerged from a Tuesday afternoon meeting with other Senate Democrats saying they wouldn’t vote to take up the trade bill —
which then failed on a 52-45 vote.
The Democrats complained that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was refusing to add a package of pro-worker provisions to the bill that many in the GOP see as unrelated and too costly.
Opposition to the measure, which would allow for quick approval of the 12-country free-trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, has been building among progressive Democrats for some time. But there was still hope at the White House that aggressive lobbying from Obama would be enough to cobble together votes needed to at least allow the Senate to debate the bill.
Warren and her fellow progressives have long been an outspoken opponent of the bill for the same reason — that it largely removes Congress’ ability to weigh in on the deal until after it’s been negotiated, a process that critics say has been done in secret and in close cooperation with lobbyists and special interests.
Warren reiterated those complaints in an interview with NPR Tuesday morning.
“The way I see this, that’s a tilted process, and a tilted process yields a tilted result,” she said.
More broadly, progressives are wary of a new free-trade deal because they believe it would draw jobs overseas and hurt American workers.
During a speech at the National Press Club on Tuesday, Warren gave voice to those concerns, warning that “this country is in real trouble.”
“We cannot continue to run this country for the top 10%. We can’t keep pushing through trade deals that benefit multi-national companies at the expense of workers,” she said.
“Government cannot continue to be the captive of the rich and the powerful. Working people cannot be forced to give up more and more as they get squeezed harder and harder.”
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) could cost us our internet freedom, labor rights, access to affordable medicine, the safety of our food, and protections that keep our water and air clean.
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