Senate rejects Toomey’s bill on oversight of trade deals

WASHINGTON - The Senate sided with the Trump administration Thursday to vote down a GOP plan that would have given Congress greater oversight over deals between foreign and U.S. firms that could affect national security.

The legislation, pushed by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., failed to clear a procedural hurdle when the Senate blocked it with a 35-to-62 vote. Sixty “yes” votes would have been required for the measure to advance.

The vote was another instance of the Senate declining to assert authority over Trump administration decision-making on trade issues. Earlier this week, GOP leaders blocked an amendment by Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., that would have given Congress veto power over certain tariff decisions by the administration.

And a fight is looming over the Senate’s attempt to enact penalties opposed by the administration on the Chinese telecommunications company ZTE. That legislation has been included in the National Defense Authorization Act, which is headed toward Senate passage in coming days, but the White House announced that it intends to try to kill the ZTE measure when a final compromise defense bill is written by House and Senate negotiators.

The Toomey legislation Thursday involved the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, an interagency committee chaired by the treasury secretary that conducts national security reviews of attempted takeovers of U.S. firms by foreign companies. Mr. Toomey wanted to give Congress a vote on major CFIUS decisions.

“It’s a simple question of whether we think that we ought to be accountable, that we ought to take authority for the legislative authority we delegate,” Mr. Toomey argued. “A ‘no’ vote is really a vote to shirk our own responsibility.”

But the administration argued that Mr. Toomey’s legislation “could potentially result in CFIUS being unable to establish regulations, thereby undermining national security.”

Democrats also opposed Mr. Toomey’s move, noting that it derived from a longstanding drive by conservatives to rein in the executive branch on various fronts, long-predating the Trump administration and ranging well beyond CFIUS.