WASHINGTON — Congressional backers of President Barack Obama’s trade agenda battled opponents on the left and right Wednesday, hoping to advance legislation that could lead to trade agreements with numerous countries.
WASHINGTON — Congressional backers of President Barack Obama’s trade agenda battled opponents on the left and right Wednesday, hoping to advance legislation that could lead to trade agreements with numerous countries.
They won an early round when the Senate Finance Committee narrowly defeated a “currency manipulation” measure, which the administration said would unravel a long-negotiated trade proposal with 11 Pacific Rim nations. Votes for and against the provision were about evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, highlighting the unusual — and possibly tenuous — political alignments on trade.
The committee’s chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, predicted an eventual “strong bipartisan vote” for “fast track” legislation. The measure would renew presidential authority to present trade deals that Congress can endorse or reject but not amend.
If Obama wins fast track, he’s expected to ask Congress to approve the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership. It involves Japan, Canada and Mexico, but not China.
Liberal groups and labor unions vow to fight him, saying trade deals hurt U.S. jobs. The Finance Committee’s actions Wednesday were delayed for hours because liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., invoked an often-ignored Senate scheduling rule in protest. “This job-killing trade deal has been negotiated in secret,” said Sanders, who made a lengthy Senate speech denouncing the legislation.
Hatch rejected the claims, saying fast track and other trade proposals have been carefully negotiated and will undergo long public scrutiny.
Obama says his Democratic opponents have their facts wrong. “I would not be doing this trade deal if I did not think it was good for the middle class,” Obama said in an interview this week with MSNBC. “When you hear folks make a lot of suggestions about how bad this trade deal is, when you dig into the facts, they are wrong.”
Few issues divide Democrats more than trade. Obama, like former President Bill Clinton, supports free trade, but many Democratic lawmakers do not.
Clinton’s and Obama’s stands — and liberal groups’ opposition — pose a dilemma for Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former first lady now seeking the presidency herself. Campaigning Tuesday in New Hampshire, she declined to say whether she supports the Pacific Rim proposal.
“We need to build things, too,” Clinton said, taking a pro-manufacturing stance generally embraced by both parties.
Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio urged the Finance Committee to direct U.S. trade officials to take tougher stands against nations that allegedly keep their currency artificially low. The practice can boost exports by making local products more affordable to foreigners. Economists disagree on whether China and other nations engage in the practice.
The Obama administration said Portman’s proposal “could derail” the Pacific-rim negotiations. The Finance Committee rejected the amendment, 15 to 11.
Republicans generally support trade pacts. But Obama can’t count on them alone to push the fiercely debated bills through the GOP-controlled House and Senate.
“He has to bring Democrats,” said Rep. Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who heads the House Ways and Means Committee. The panel will debate the fast track legislation Thursday.
Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the Finance Committee’s top Democrat, backs the fast track bill, and he opposed Portman’s amendment.
By contrast, the House Ways and Means Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, opposes the Obama-backed fast track legislation. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi endorsed Levin’s alternative bill.