• SPAN

Trade Bills Stall in Congress

After a Presidential lobbying effort, the House overwhelmingly rejected the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) portion of the trade promotion (TPA) legislation also known as Fast Track Authority.

The trade bill was broken into two portions to allow each party to vote against the respective portion they opposed.  Most Democrats oppose TPA, while many Republicans oppose the TAA programs. In this case, the Democrats joined a number of conservative Republicans to thwart the larger TPA bill.  The vote was taken after Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi denounced the bill on the House Floor. 

The administration is currently negotiating two major trade agreements, and the President in the past couple of months has been strongly advocating for TPA and arguing that such agreements will benefit the United States.  The Senate passed a version of the trade promotion authority earlier.  If the House does pass the legislation, it will likely be conferenced before it goes to the president.  The Majority seems intent on pushing the next vote back a few weeks to allow the President to continue to lobby his party for the necessary votes to pass the legislation. 

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