Thread: Senate Leaders Reach Deal to Vote on Trade Authority

Senate Leaders Reach Deal to Vote on Trade Authority

By JONATHAN WEISMAN MAY 13, 2015



Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, at a news conference on Tuesday.CreditZach Gibson/The New York Times


WASHINGTON — Less than 24 hours after Senate Democrats blocked President Obama’s free trade push, leaders in both parties agreed Wednesday on a path toward granting the president accelerated authority to complete a major accord ringing the Pacific Ocean.

After personal lobbying from the president, Democrats led by Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the No. 3-ranking Democrat over all, agreed to an offer from Republican leaders.

Under the deal, the Senate would vote first on a trade enforcement bill that includes new remedies to counter currency manipulation by trading partners.

The Senate would then begin debate on trade promotion authority, which would allow the Obama administration to complete negotiations on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, knowing Congress can accept or reject the accord, but would not be able to amend it.

The agreement gives Democrats a symbolic chance to show support for a get-tough approach to countries that keep the value of their currency intentionally low to make their exports cheaper and to raise the cost of American goods. But if that separate bill can get through the House, it would then be vetoed by the president, who believes it would blow up trade talks.

Republicans succeeded in fending off a Democratic push to attach the currency measure to the trade promotion authority measure itself.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/14/us...after-all.html

5/12/15

http://www.alipac.us/f9/senate-democ...agenda-319430/

Senate Reaches Deal To Vote On 'Fast-Track' Trade Bill Thursday

MAY 13, 2015 3:22 PM ET
BILL CHAPPELL

One day after Senate Democrats blocked the "fast-track" trade authority bill that has been championed by both President Obama and Republicans, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says an agreement has been reached to move forward.

The solution calls for separate votes on bills that Democrats had wanted to move as a single package on the floor, according to NPR's Ailsa Chang. Ailsa says the Senate will vote on a customs enforcement bill that includes Sen. Charles Schumer's safeguards aimed at reducing currency manipulation.

The customs bill "will get a vote tomorrow at 10:30 a.m.," Ailsa reports, along with "a vote on a bill giving trade preference to sub-Saharan African countries."

Those early votes will be followed by a bid for final passage, slated for 12:30 p.m. ET.

The deal comes a day after the "fast track" bill that would give the president TPA — or trade promotion authority — fell eight votes short of the 60 needed to avoid a Senate filibuster.

As Brian Naylor reported for The Two-Way on Tuesday, the trade authority "would ultimately clear the way for passage of the Trans Pacific Partnership — a complex trade agreement that its supporters say will provide new markets for American goods as well as new jobs."

And Brian added, "Democrats — even some who support the trade agreement, like Ron Wyden of Oregon — voted to block the Senate from taking up the bill, because they want Republicans to agree to take up other trade-related measures."

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...-bill-thursday

EXCLUSIVE — SEN. RAND PAUL VISITS SECRET ROOM TO READ OBAMATRADE, CALLS FOR PUBLIC RELEASE OF DEAL TEXT

Matt Boyle/Breitbart News

by MATTHEW BOYLE 13 May 2015 Washington, DC
White House: Senate Dems revolt on trade is a temporary '

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)
93%—an opponent of the secretive Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) that would fast-track the Pacific Rim trade deal Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)—went inside the secret room inside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday morning to read the TPP text and told Breitbart News exclusively afterwards that he believes President Barack Obama should make it public now.The deal’s text is kept in a room behind double doors that each have signs: “No Public Or Media Beyond This Point.”

“It’s done like you’re going in to read a classified briefing though it’s not actually ‘classified.’ It’s called ‘confidential,’” Paul said in an interview with Breitbart News outside the room after reading it. Paul and his legal staff spent about 45 minutes in the room reading the deal’s text.

“I think the staff signed an agreement [which didn’t include a non-disclosure]—they signed in, it’s a normal procedure,” he explained. “But I wasn’t required to sign in.”

When asked for some of the details that are inside the TPP agreement, Paul said he’s not allowed to tell us that. But he did say the secret trade deal that his Kentucky colleague, Senate Majority Leader

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
54%, wants to rush through the Senate is about 800 pages long. He added he plans to seek additional information from the U.S. Trade Representative’s office—including a briefing from them—and suspects that the text he read isn’t even the final version of the deal.“I think I am not supposed to reveal the details of it, but I can tell you it was about 800 pages long,” Paul said.

I think while we’ve gotten at least some headway in understanding what’s in it, I think it raises more questions that will require more research to fully understand what’s in it. We’re going to pursue that with someone from the U.S. Trade Representative—we’re going to pursue more information from them. Some of the questions are whether we’re seeing the final agreement or this is in the interim agreement before the final agreement. That’s a question we still have. I have a feeling that what we’re seeing is a work product, not a final.

Paul said he thinks the “secretive” process hurts the “cause” of TPA and TPP advocates, and is calling on the Obama administration to publicly release the deal’s details before future votes on the matter in the U.S. Senate.

“The thing is is that I think it actually hurts their cause by making it so secretive—while I can’t discuss the details of what was in there because of them calling it secret, I didn’t see anything that I didn’t think couldn’t be made public with a problem,” Paul said. “If so, I’m missing something because we read through 800 pages of it and we didn’t see anything that I couldn’t conclude couldn’t be made public.”

Paul said he thinks the secretive process makes it look like the government has “something to hide” and that he thinks if Obama opened up the process it’d make it easier for several Senators—and the American people—to truly understand what it is they’re voting on.

“I think it would make a difference for some folks, myself included, if they were to make it less secret because they think that really to vote on things that there’s a suspicion among the American public that if someone is making something secret they’ve got something to hide—particularly from the government’s point of view—so I’d like to see the process opened up,” Paul said.

Paul, a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, stands alongside most of the rest of the field in opposition to Obamatrade.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina compared the secretive process to Obamacare’s passage in the early days of this president’s administration. Dr. Ben Carson also called for more transparency, as did Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is concerned with the deal’s impacts on American workers.

On the other side, Sens.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)

81%

and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)

96%

are in favor of the deal—even though it’s unclear if either has, like Paul now has, visited the secret room to read the text. Both could. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry are also in favor of the deal, but wouldn’t be allowed through the doors to read it.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
80%, the emerging conservative kingmaker and the leading intellectual conservative in Congress, has made an identical call to what Paul has for more transparency from the Obama administration.Sessions, in a “critical alert” his office issued publicly and to other members on Capitol Hill before the recently-failed votes to begin debate on TPA fast track authority, listed out five “questions the White House will not answer.”

The questions the White House is refusing to be transparent about, Sessions noted, are: “Will it increase or reduce the trade deficit, and by how much? Will it increase or reduce employment and wages, and by how much? Will you make the “living agreement” section public and explain fully its implications? Will China be added to the TPP? Will you pledge not to issue any executive actions, or enter into any future agreements, impacting the flow of foreign workers into the United States?”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...-of-deal-text/


Read More Stories About:

Big Government, 2016 Presidential Race, Rand Paul, Jeff Sessions, 2016 presidential campaign, Trans Pacific Partnership, Trade Promotion Authority, Obamatrade

I am asking the republicans to stop the republican Congress from dong this? Republicans in Congress have never given me much thought...so, I would expect the same on this, because they have seemed to have adopted this as their baby.

Sessions, Shelby back debate on 'fast track' measure but question bill's merits

Mary Troyan, USA TODAY 3:08 a.m. CDT May 13, 2015


(Photo: file)


WASHINGTON – Alabama Sens. Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions voted with their fellow Republicans Tuesday in a failed attempt to open debate on a key piece of President Barack Obama's trade agenda.

But Shelby and Sessions may eventually break with their GOP colleagues and oppose "fast-track" legislation to make it easier for the administration to negotiate international trade deals. Under such legislation, also known as trade promotion authority, Congress could vote up or down on trade deals but could not amend them.

Tuesday's action in the Senate offered a rare example of Senate Democrats banding together to oppose legislation that Obama considers a priority. Only one Democrat joined Republicans in voting for a motion to open debate on the fast-track bill, which kept the motion from getting the 60 votes it needed. The vote was 52-45.

Even pro-trade Democrats voted no as part of a strategy aimed at advancing legislation that would enhance worker protections and crack down on currency manipulation.

If Republican and Democratic leaders reach a new compromise and the fast-track bill returns to the floor, it's not clear Shelby and Sessions would support renewing trade promotion authority.

"I'm not sure. I'm looking at it closely," Shelby said just before Tuesday's vote. "There are some pluses and minuses. This is sweeping and gives the president a lot of power."

Sessions has been more critical, saying Congress shouldn't agree to fast-track procedures without more information about the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a nearly complete free trade deal involving 11 Asia-Pacific nations.

"It has always been problematic to use this fast-track procedure," Sessions said on the Senate floor.

Sessions and Shelby have voted in the past for free trade deals that were fast-tracked. Sessions, however, has new reservations about whether future trade deals would increase the trade deficit, depress wages in the U.S. or expand programs allowing foreign workers to enter the country.

"I do believe it is time for us to be a lot more careful today with the trade agreements that we sign and ask a lot more rigorously what impact it will have on working Americans, not just some capital group in the canyons of Wall Street," Sessions said.

The Alabama senators were among five Republicans who voted against renewing fast-track authority when former President George W. Bush was in the White House in 2002.

Democrats demanded assurances from Republicans Tuesday that two additional pieces of legislation would become part of the deal: a non-controversial bill supporting African economies and a customs enforcement measure that includes controversial language aimed at cracking down on currency manipulation in China. Republicans balked.

"What I'm not going to put up with is the minority trying to craft a bill before we even get on it," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said. "That's just simply unacceptable."

Democrats' maneuvering also puts them at odds with White House officials, who say the currency manipulation language could threaten the TPP trade deal. The White House has also raised concerns that the language would fray diplomatic relations with China and potentially undermine the Federal Reserve.

Obama said U.S. exports support 11 million American jobs, many of which pay higher wages than jobs with employers that don't export.

"It's no secret that past trade deals haven't always lived up to their promise, and that's why I will only sign my name to an agreement that helps ordinary Americans get ahead," Obama said last month. "At the same time, at a moment when 95 percent of our potential customers live outside our borders, we must make sure that we, and not countries like China, are writing the rules for the global economy."

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/...rits/27198119/

5/14/15

http://www.alipac.us/f9/u-s-senate-b...e-vote-319490/

5/14/15

http://www.alipac.us/f9/senate-rever...hority-319491/