Silicon Valley, Obama at odds with lawmakers

Bill heralded by tech industry spurs oversight worries for some Democrats

For the Bay Area’s congressional delegation, positions on the issues often come easy: Side with the president, and you’ll usually please the area’s relatively progressive business community as well, on issues ranging from immigration to the environment to gay rights.

But a new trade bill being fiercely debated this week has put these liberal Democrats in an uncomfortable position, at odds with powerful constituencies they rarely offend.

The bill would give the White House “fast track” authority to strike international trade deals and limit the power of Congress to amend them.

Rep. Barbara Lee is one of President Barack Obama’s most ardent supporters, but on this issue

she is helping to whip votes against the bill.

“I’m working hard to make it go down,” said Lee, D- Oakland, who said giving the president the right to sign trade agreements that lawmakers can only vote up or down leaves Congress muzzled, the environment at dire risk and too many U. S. workers jobless. “It’s pretty horrendous.”

But Rep. Mike Honda, D- San Jose — who went on record in 2013 opposing such presidential authority — now says he’s undecided. Much as the net neutrality issue has put Republicans in a minefield between Silicon Valley and the rest of big business, so too does this bill force Democrats to step gingerly between the tech industry and the party’s labor and environmental base.

Prominent tech industry groups supporting it include the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, TechNet, the Telecommunications Industry Association and the Consumer Electronics Association.

“Our businesses rely on a robust export market, and this bill will go a long way in empowering the U. S. and enabling U. S. companies to remain competitive across the globe,” said Carl Guardino, the leadership group’s CEO.

The House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee will hold hearings Wednesday to debate and tweak the bipartisan legislation. Supporters say it’s impossible to win support for a major trade deal without limiting Congress’ ability to amend what’s already been negotiated with other countries. Other major trade legislation — most prominently the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA — have been handled the same way.

Labor and environmental groups are in overdrive to defeat the bill because they know the first treaty that would be affected is the Trans- Pacific Partnership — a pact with 12 Pacific Rim nations that opponents say lacks adequate protections for workers and the environment.

Obama drew the battle lines in January’s State of the Union address. “Look, I’m the first one to admit that past trade deals haven’t always lived up to the hype, and that’s why we’ve gone after countries that break the rules at our expense,” he said. “But 95 percent of the world’s customers live outside our borders, and we can’t close ourselves off from those opportunities.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D- San Francisco, has said she’s seeking “a path to yes,” but none of her Bay Area peers have publicly supported the bill.

Lee said Tuesday that she supports fair trade deals, but past pacts like NAFTA have cost the nation millions of lost jobs and billions in lost wages, with communities of color disproportionately taking the brunt.

“I continue to be a strong supporter of this