Obama must act quickly to rescue trade bill in House

100 more votes needed to save it in a new House vote next week

washington — President Barack Obama must persuade dozens of fellow Democrats to back a trade bill that most of them sought to block. And he needs to do it soon if he wants to rescue a centrepiece of his second-term agenda, a landmark trade agreement with Pacific nations.

Supporters of his fast-track trade proposal need almost 100 more votes to save it in a new House vote next week, after his fellow Democrats scuttled final action on the plan Friday. White House press secretary Josh Earnest called the embarrassing defeat a “procedural snafu” and said he was optimistic that Democrats ultimately would help send the fast- track trade negotiating measure to Obama.

Meanwhile, the House’s majority Republicans said it will be up to Obama to turn Democratic skeptics into supporters.

“The president has some work yet to do with his party; this isn’t over yet,” Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, said at a news conference after the vote.

Democratic opponents including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who criticised the trade plan in a dramatic floor speech, signaled that prospects for passage will increase if Republicans act on other Democratic priorities, such as a highway funding bill.

A new House vote on trade will come as soon as Tuesday. Democratic backers of the trade bills said they would spend the coming days trying to persuade colleagues to revive the worker assistance bill. Still, they acknowledged the major setback they suffered on Friday.

Democrats blocked final passage of the fast-track trade measure hours after a rare visit by Obama to the Capitol to seek their support. In a 126-302 vote, they helped reject a displaced workers’ aid program they have supported for decades. Under procedures adopted for the vote, it had to pass for a final vote on fast-track authority to be binding.

The House then voted for the fast-track measure, 219-211. It won’t go to Obama’s desk unless the worker aid bill also passes in next week’s vote.

Earnest said the trade measure “will be the subject of a lot of conversations between White House officials and maybe even the president today and over the weekend and possibly even into early next week.”

The Trade Benefits America Coalition, the main business lobby behind fast track, urged Republicans and Democrats to win final approval together. “We encourage members of the House of Representatives to quickly forge an agreement so that TPA can be enacted into law,” David Thomas, president of the coalition, said in a statement, referring to the fast-track bill.

Obama has lobbied for months for the trade measure, which would let him submit agreements to Congress for an expedited, up-or-down vote without amendments. The president wants the expedited authority to aid completion of a 12-nation Trans- Pacific Partnership.

Many Democrats remain stung by the 1994 North American Free

Bloomberg

Trade Agreement, which labour unions blame for a decline in US manufacturing jobs.

Fast-track supporters settled on a strategy for the next few days based on reminding colleagues of their long-term support for aiding workers who lose their jobs because of free trade agreements, known as trade adjustment assistance.

Democrats who support the worker aid and fast-track authority said they would tell skeptical members of their party that they should back TAA next week because it’s no longer directly linked to trade negotiating authority. Representative Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, said, “The reason not to vote for TAA is gone.”

“Hopefully as temperatures cool, they will see a different context,” Connolly said.

Labour unions plan to counter the renewed pressure with messages telling Democrats to remain firm in their opposition, said Celeste Drake, director for trade policy at the AFLCIO, the nation’s largest labour federation. —