House votes in favor of TPA, but rejects TAA

Despite passing fast-track Trade Promotion Authority, the U.S. House of Representatives potentially stopped TPA in its tracks today, voting against a companion bill to help workers displaced by trade deals.    The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed a Trade Promotion Authority bill with one hand, but with the other kept the fast-track negotiating authority from advancing by defeating a companion trade bill.
   TPA passed by a vote of 219-211, but only after Democrats voted down legislation to extend federal assistance for job training, relocation, health benefits and financial aid to workers displaced by employers relocating factories overseas because of favorable trade conditions.
   The defeat of Trade Adjustment Assistance essentially kills TPA, as the Senate bill that passed inextricably linked the two together, meaning they cannot advance to the president for his signature unless both are approved. Political analysts say another vote on TAA will likely be held on Tuesday, and unless a new compromise is forged, TPA and President Obama’s effort to finalize the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement this year could be doomed.
   Politico’s Jake Sherman tweeted that the second vote was essentially symbolic. “FAST TRACK, which is getting a show vote, gets enough votes to pass. But the way process is written, means nothing. Back to drawing board,” he said in a 140-character news update.
   Prior to the vote, President Obama made a rare visit to Capitol Hill in a last-ditch effort to save the trade assistance program. The president’s plea fell on deaf ears, however, as the TAA was defeated dramatically in the House by a vote of 302-126.
   Obama has been lobbying for the so-called “fast-track” Trade Promotion Authority bill that would give him the ability to complete trade deals with limited Congressional interference for several weeks now.
   Under the terms of TPA, free trade agreements would be negotiated by the president and then sent to Congress for an “up or down” (yes or no) vote. The legislature would not be allowed to amend or edit the deal, which Obama says will give him more leverage in negotiations as the other nations involved will not be worried about after-the-fact revisions.
   “I will be voting to slow down fast-track,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said on the floor before today’s vote, according to reports from the Washington Post. “Today we have an opportunity to slow down. Whatever the deal is with other countries, we want a better deal for American workers.”
   Obama and supporters of the Trans-Pacific Partnership consider Trade Promotion Authority crucial to finalizing negotiations on the massive free trade agreement with 11 other nations in Asia and the Americas.
   They say the TPP will set guidelines for shifting trade patterns that will take place with or without the United States’ input, rather than let other countries like China, who may have less stringent policies, lead the way and potentially make it more difficult for U.S. companies to compete in the global marketplace.
   “And, if we are not there helping to shape the rules of the road, then U.S. businesses and U.S. workers are going to be cut out, because there’s a pretty big country there, called China, that is growing fast, has great gravitational pull and often operates with different sets of rules,” Obama said in a recent interview on the radio program “Marketplace.”
   “So, we started this negotiation, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, recognizing that a third of our recovery’s been driven by exports, that typically export industries pay higher wages, and if we want to make sure that we’re selling American products, American services into not just the next decade, but the next several decades, then we’ve got to have high standards, high labor protections, high environmental protections, in that part of the market, that part of the world, where we need to do business.”
   Opponents of the deal, which include lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, say the TPP will hurt the middle class and lead to increased outsourcing of jobs and lowered environmental and labor standards.
   The Washington Post said that despite previously supporting TAA, anti-trade Democrats were among those pushing to block the financial assistance plan, knowing that its defeat would likely also mean the end of TPA and, therefore, the defeat of the TPP.
   “The failure of TAA was Congress at its worst,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said of the vote. “American workers hurt by trade rely on TAA to gain the training and skills they need to adapt and thrive. This important program has historically received broad Democratic support. In fact, 125 Democrats voted for a shorter, weaker TAA package in 2011. But today, political gamesmanship within our party won out over substance.
   “I voted for this TAA package because the policy was right. I am hopeful we will find a path forward. When considered again next week, I urge my colleagues to look at the merits of the program, and not for opportunities to score points,” added Blumenauer.
   “If it is enacted, TPA will not only ensure that congressional objectives are met as negotiations on agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership advance, but it also gives negotiators the authority needed to complete the best deals possible for America,” National Foreign Trade Council President Bill Reinsch said in a statement lauding the passage of the fast-track legislation.
   “However, the House’s action in rejecting the Trade Adjustment Assistance program is a historic mistake its members will come to regret. TAA is one of the few programs we have that helps our workers cope with the transition to a globally integrated economy, a transition that is going to continue regardless of Congress.”
   Wade Cowan, president of the American Soybean Association, said in a statement, “The vote by the House today [on TPA] is an absolute win for soybean farmers in the United States, but it only gets us halfway to our goal without a compromise on TAA.
   “The House’s disagreements over trade adjustment assistance threaten to stand in the way of the fast track authority we need to finalize an agreement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership that includes vital export markets for U.S. soybeans and meat products, as well as the developing markets that grow in their demand for American soy every day. With an administration empowered by TPA, we can also participate fully in the active crafting of agreements between the world’s major traders that has been going on—largely without us—since TPA lapsed in 2007.”
   The National Retail Federation, a retail trade association that represents discount and department stores, home goods and specialty stores, Main Street merchants, grocers, wholesalers, chain restaurants and Internet retailers across the world, said the House vote “put politics ahead of people.”
   “The vote in the House of Representatives that puts final congressional passage of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) in jeopardy is a victory for those with a narrow agenda that puts petty politics ahead of people, while jeopardizing the futures of millions of men and women in America, both those with jobs striving to grow the middle class and those seeking jobs that can only come with a robust economy,” said David French, NRF’s senior vice president of government relations.
   “It is nothing short of astounding that in the 21st-century anyone would think it is in our country’s best interest to sit back and let foreign governments dictate our role in a global marketplace. We are not just disappointed that isolationist fear mongering and political threats carried the day, we are genuinely concerned for the seven million restaurant and retail jobs that are supported by trade as well as the continued viability of the businesses that employ them.
   “As this debate moves forward, make no mistake, the world is watching,” said French.