Senate passes trade 'fast track,' handing Obama a major victory

The Senate voted Wednesday to give President Barack Obama "fast track" authority to negotiate trade deals—one of the final steps in a long political battle that pitted the White House against House Democrats.

The bill—which passed 60-38 in the Senate—will be sent to the president's desk later this afternoon, but it was not immediately clear when he would sign it.

Unions and most congressional Democrats say free-trade deals cost U.S. jobs and reward countries that pollute and mistreat workers. Obama and most Republican leaders say U.S. products must reach broader markets.

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President Barack Obama.

After killing one version of fast track (also known as Trade Promotion Authority, or TPA), the House eventually voted last week to pass the measure.

The Senate plans to vote on three other trade-related bills. One would extend a job retraining program for workers displaced by international trade. That program requires House approval, too.

Read More Pacific trade: Why DC is fighting about 'fast-track'

On Tuesday, Senators voted 60-37 to streamline the debate process—a key victory for the Obama-backed measure.

Senate passage Wednesday of fast-track authority boosts Obama's hopes for a 12-nation Pacific-rim trade agreement. Members include Japan, Malaysia, Mexico and Canada.

In addition to the traditional arguments for trade deals, administration officials and many Republicans contend that the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership would help underscore the U.S. pivot toward Asia—and establish Washington's system in a part of the world increasingly influenced by Chinese interests.

Via: CNBC

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Hillary Finally Breaks Her Silence On A Huge Issue By Stabbing Obama In The Back

SOMETIMES THEY JUST EAT THEIR OWN FOR THERE OWN BENEFIT

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she would “probably not” vote for Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) if she was still in the Senate today. TPA is legislation championed by both the Republican leadership and President Obama.

In an interview on KNPB with Nevada political reporter Jon Ralston Thursday, Clinton reiterated her history in the upper chamber of having voted for and against free trade agreements. “I try to make a judgment based on the merits and when I was in the Senate there were a number of trade agreements that I thought were good, I said okay I’ll vote for them, and others not,” Clinton said.

TPA passed for the second time in the House Thursday, making its way to the Senate. The bill has a few procedural mountains to climb before it can get to Obama’s desk. When Ralston asked the former first lady point blank if she would vote yes or no on TPA when it comes to the Senate, Clinton answered in the negative:

At this point, probably not because it’s a process vote and I don’t want to say it’s the same as TPP.  Right now I’m focused on making sure we get trade adjustment assistance and I certainly would not vote for it unless I were absolutely confident we would get trade adjustment assistance.

TPP refers to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-country trade agreement between the United States and Asian and Central American countries which would surely be presented to Congress if TPA is renewed. Earlier in the interview, Clinton expressed some concerns with TPP:

It’s only available to people who go to a certain room in the Capitol Hill Complex and they can’t show it to their aides and they can’t even take notes on it, so all I can judge is what people are coming out and telling me and even in my book, Hard Choices, last summer, I said I have real doubt about this so called investor state dispute settlement agreement, which basically means you run a big company, pick a big Asian company of some sort from one of the countries in the agreement and you want to import some kind of food and the local officials, say in Nevada, say, you know what?

That doesn’t meet our standards.

“Or the FDA says it, somebody says it, and so you then say wait a minute, under this trade agreement I should be able to do that, so I demand one of these dispute settlement determinations,” continued Clinton. “Who’s in the room?  Maybe I’m an expert on health and running a hygiene program in Nevada.  Maybe I’m the person who oversees the big casinos’ health standards.”

Via: Western Journalism

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TEAM OBAMATRADE PLANNING TRICKY EFFORT TO SNEAK EXPORT-IMPORT BANK REAUTHORIZATION INTO DEAL

In the final hours before the House votes on a new leadership-concocted scheme to sneak Obamatrade past the American public, it’s been revealed that pro-Obamatrade forces are now aiming to sneak a renewal of the highly controversial Export Import Bank into the deal to secure Senate passage later if the House passes it on Thursday.

“I and all the other members there are looking for a guarantee … for a deal to be good it’s got to have enforcement, TAA, I think it’s got to have Ex-Im reauthorization,” 

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA)

0%

, a Democrat who’s angling for this in the deal, said according to Politico. “A lot of [the meeting] was to talk about that very question of: What is a sufficient assurance?”

Politico reports that such a discussion happened at the White House between so-called pro-Obamatrade Democrats and President Barack Obama.

“At the White House on Wednesday, pro-trade Democrats and Obama discussed the possibility of sticking together as a bloc so they can get TPA, TAA, a customs enforcement and perhaps an extension of the Export-Import Bank charter, which lapses at the end of the month,” Politico wrote late Wednesday.

What’s more, 

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)

4%

—and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA)—also confirmed the effort to sneak the Export-Import Bank reauthorization into the deal when it hits the Senate.

“

Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-VA)

12%

 said 

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)

4%

 and a ‘small group’ of Democratic senators who voted last month to renew TPA made ‘very clear’ in a June 16 meeting with House Democrats that they will support a standalone TPA only if they can get a vote on Ex-Im reauthorization,” Inside U.S. Trade, a high-value trade subscription-only publication for beltway insiders, wrote on Wednesday. “Connolly said for these ‘handful’ of Senate Democrats the Ex-Im issue seemed more important than the passage of TAA.”

Via: Breitbart

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ObamaTrade returns on Tuesday – Call Congress 202 224-3121 tell them Vote NO!

The House of Representatives will vote on Obamatrade – again! – on Tuesday. Call 202 224-3121 – tell Congress to vote NO!

John Boehner and Barack Obama are pushing H.R. 1314, that will give Obama the power he needs to enact Obamatrade, the secretive TransPacific Partnership.

In addition, H.R. 1314 will also raise taxes on small businesses to fund a wasteful welfare program for union members.

Tell your congressman to vote No on H.R. 1314 when it comes before Congress this week.

A vote for H.R. 1314 is a vote for Obamatrade and a tax hike on small business. 

Via: ObamaTrade.com

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Malkin: Why America Hates The GOP-Obamatrade Deal

Constitutional conservatives don't like it. Trade unions abhor it. Obama critics hate it. Environmentalists despise it.

Outside the Beltway bubble, a broad coalition of voters from the left, right and center opposes the mega-trade deal getting rammed through Congress this week by the Republican establishment on behalf of the White House. Here's why.

The Obama administration, House GOP leader John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have sold out American sovereignty. Their so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership Commission will have sweeping authority over trade, immigration, environmental, labor and commerce regulations.

As alert watchdogs U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest and U.S. Rep Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., warn: "By adopting fast-track, Congress would be formally authorizing the President to finalize the creation of this Pacific Union and will have surrendered its legislative prerogatives. Before a word, line, paragraph, or page of this plan is made public, Congress will have agreed to give up its treaty powers. ... In effect, one of the most sweeping international agreements seen in years will be given less legislative scrutiny and process than a Post Office reform bill."

The Obama administration, House GOP leader John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have sold out legislative transparency. Boehner smugly asserts that so-called Trade Promotion Authority puts Congress in charge and promotes "more openness" on trade talks. Nonsense. Under the Boehner/Obama plan, Congress gives up its ability to amend any trade deals under fast track, severely limits the ability to debate and lowers the vote threshold in the Senate from 61 to 51. The 11 international parties negotiating with Obama on TPP refuse to sign their dotted lines until Congress agrees to pre-agree to behemoth global trade pacts -- sight unseen.

As Obamatrade cheerleader and Big Business crony Sen. Orrin Hack, I mean Hatch, admitted, "I don't know fully what's in TPP myself."

The secretive wheeling and dealing on the massive 29-chapter draft (kept under classified lock-and-key and only a tiny portion of which have been publicly disclosed through WikiLeaks) make the backroom Obamacare negotiations look like a gigantic solar flare of openness and public deliberation. Fast-track Republicans, who rightfully made a stink when Nancy Pelosi declared that "we have to pass the [Obamacare] bill so that you can find out what is in it," now have no transparency legs to stand on.

Via: Truth Revolt

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Republicans Watch With Bewilderment As Democrats Flounder on Trade

June 12, 2015 It's a new vantage point for Republican leaders. After nearly five years of intra-party squabbling of their own, Republicans are watching Democrats erupt into disarray over their own president's trade bill.

Friday morning, President Obama made his final pitch to the caucus, travelling to the Hill to do so. But, the president's only one of many messengers. Unions and other progressive groups have been lobbying members to vote against Trade Promotion Authority, which limits Congress to an up or down vote on future trade deals, as well as Trade Adjustment Assistance, a Democratic priority that provides resources for workers displaced by future trade deals. Democratic leaders had largely stayed neutral on the trade package, leaving the whip operation to the Obama administration.

On the actual vote, Democratic leadership split, with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi giving a speech just before the vote declaring her opposition. Pelosi voted against TAA while Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer would up voting for it. TAA went down by a big 302-126 margin, seriously imperilling the fate of Obama's trade deal.

Republicans pounced that Obama's inability to get members of his own party to support him was a reflection of his waning appeal on Capitol Hill.

"Democrats are caught up in a real challenge where the President of the United States has no clout with their members and they viewed it that the president has never paid attention to them, and when he came asking for something, he was out of step," said Pete Sessions, the chairman of the House Rules Committee.

Via: National Journal

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For Democrats split on trade, the fight is getting personal.

President Obama's feeling the heat -- from Democrats ahead of Friday's vote on trade legislation. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Democrats feel backed into a corner on today's high-stakes vote on Obama's trade deals. And they're letting it show.

The House of Representatives is expected to take a very important vote Friday on legislation known as fast track. It would give Obama leeway to negotiate two massive deals with Pacific Rim nations and Europe. Broadly speaking, Republicans support the plan. Democrats, not so much.

[The congressional trade deal explained, in 6 factions]

Labor unions, those well-funded foundations of all that is good for the Democratic Party, absolutely hate the trade deals. Unions have promised to spend cash, lots of it, to take out any Democrat who supports Friday's vote.

So as Obama works with House Republican and Democratic leaders to shove fast-track legislation through on what's expected to be a razor-thin vote, most of the 188 House Democrats feel their career hanging in the balance.

And they're increasingly attacking not just the trade deal, but their own president.

Obama arrives on the Hill for trade vote(0:35)

President Obama made an 11th-hour appeal to dubious Democrats on Friday in a tense run-up to a House showdown on legislation to strengthen his hand in global trade talks. (AP)

The vitriol started with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). As the Senate prepared to vote on fast track last month (it passed 62 to 38), the liberal darling was so vocal about the secrecy surrounding Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership deal with 11 other countries that she earned a rare diss from Obama.

Via: Washington Post

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PALIN SLAMS OBAMATRADE AS ANOTHER ‘DON’T PASS IT ’TIL WE KNOW WHAT’S IN IT!’

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is sharing Breitbart News’story on Facebook, following the close Rules vote ahead of Friday’s final vote on the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) that would grant President Obama fast-track authority to finish his trade negotiations.

She also posted her reaction to the non-transparency this administration has shown in handling the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which is keeping part of the draft in a secret room on Capitol Hill.

“The secretive, hugely impacting Obamatrade deal is another behind-closed-doors fast-tracked D.C. deal that screams “don’t pass it ’til we know what’s in it!” Yet politicians are going along to get along, supporting Obama’s pet project while ignoring the public’s right to know what’s in this monumental international trade deal. This, despite the President’s track record proving he hasn’t got it in him to put American workers first,” Palin posted.

“If Congress hands this secretive deal to Obama on a silver platter, admitting to not even reading it first, then shame on us for letting another one slide. This is fast-tracked, friends. Like Obamacare, when we sounded warning bells but too many were too busy to pressure their employees (your elected politicians) to do the right thing and learn it first. Since when is Congress able to halt any bullying administration’s fast-track deals? They never have before. Didn’t we learn last time?”

The vote on TPA is expected Friday afternoon.

Via: Breitbart

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Why America Hates the GOP-Obamatrade Deal

Outside the Beltway bubble, a broad coalition of voters from the left, right and center opposes the mega-trade deal getting rammed through Congress this week by the Republican establishment on behalf of the White House. 

Here’s why.

Constitutional conservatives don’t like it. Trade unions abhor it. Obama critics hate it. Environmentalists despise it.

The Obama administration, House GOP leader John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have sold out American sovereignty. Their so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership Commission will have sweeping authority over trade, immigration, environmental, labor and commerce regulations.

As alert watchdogs U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest and U.S. Rep Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., warn: “By adopting fast-track, Congress would be formally authorizing the President to finalize the creation of this Pacific Union and will have surrendered its legislative prerogatives. Before a word, line, paragraph, or page of this plan is made public, Congress will have agreed to give up its treaty powers. … In effect, one of the most sweeping international agreements seen in years will be given less legislative scrutiny and process than a Post Office reform bill.”

The Obama administration, House GOP leader John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have sold out legislative transparency. Boehner smugly asserts that so-called Trade Promotion Authority puts Congress in charge and promotes “more openness” on trade talks. Nonsense. Under the Boehner/Obama plan, Congress gives up its ability to amend any trade deals under fast track, severely limits the ability to debate and lowers the vote threshold in the Senate from 61 to 51. The 11 international parties negotiating with Obama on TPP refuse to sign their dotted lines until Congress agrees to pre-agree to behemoth global trade pacts — sight unseen.

Via: Human Events

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BLOOD IN THE WATER: 34 COURAGEOUS CONSERVATIVES WOUND OBAMATRADE ON WAY TO FINAL HOUSE VOTE

A whopping 34 courageous conservative Republicans shocked the political world on Thursday by severely wounding—and nearly killing—Obamatrade on a purely procedural vote.

Most importantly about this is that the vote passed with less than a majority of the full House of Representatives. Speaker 

Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

40%

 was only able to — on a purely procedural vote — obtain 217, rather than the 218 votes for a majority, votes for the rule. It passed the House 217-212.

The vote, which nearly failed and would have ended Obamatrade right there, was a necessary procedural hurdle—a rule—that was must-pass for Obamatrade to make its way to the House floor for final consideration on Friday. What’s more, the nearly successful effort to kill Obamatrade—which has been lobbied heavily for by House GOP leadership, particularly the program’s chief architect Ways and Means Committee chairman 

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

60%

—means that there’s blood in the water around Obamatrade everywhere in the eleventh hour.

The 34 conservatives who stood up to the Washington establishment are: Reps. 

Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI)

95%

, 

Rep. Rod Blum (R-IA)

100%

, Dave Brat (R-VA),

Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO)

80%

, 

Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC)

95%

, 

Rep. John Fleming (R-LA)

82%

, 

Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ)

90%

, 

Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ)

88%

, 

Rep. Chris Gibson (R-NY)

42%

, 

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)

94%

, 

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ)

80%

, 

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)

65%

, 

Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD)

78%

, 

Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA)

60%

,

Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC)

70%

, 

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH)

92%

, 

Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID)

95%

, 

Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)

78%

, 

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY)

91%

, 

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC)

95%

, 

Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV)

60%

, 

Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC)

92%

, 

Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL)

100%

, 

Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM)

70%

, 

Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA)

68%

, 

Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL)

78%

, 

Rep. Keith Rothfus (R-PA)

59%

, 

Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ)

91%

, 

Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ)

95%

, 

Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN)

83%

, 

Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL)

62%

, 

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL)

80%

, 

Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK)

95%

 and 

Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL)

73%

.

“Americans should be proud that 34 Republicans put their country before their political party today,” Americans for Limited Government president Rick Manning tells Breitbart News. “Their vote to stop Obamatrade dead in its tracks is one that sets the stage for tomorrow’s defeat of enabling him to fast track the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other treaties.  The nation owes these 34 heroes a debt of gratitude.”

Via: Breitbart

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