Ways & Means Committee approved the Fast Track trade authority bill on a near party line vote. 25-13. All Republicans on the committee plus two Democrats (Kind and Blumenauer) voted for the bill. Ranking Member Sander Levin offered a substitute trade authority bill that would have replaced aspirational, unenforceable trade negotiation objectives with mandatory negotiating…
Updated: The Senate Finance Committee late Wednesday night (April 22) approved by a vote of 20-6 a bill that would extend Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) to the president for up to six years, with amendments regarding its negotiating objectives addressing boycotts of Israel and human rights. A third amendment added to the TPA bill,…
The Senate Finance Committee held a long “executive session” yesterday, April 22, 2015, on the misguided “fast track” trade authority bill. There were many amendments. Here is what happened. Summary: CPA opposes the fast track trade authority bill (S 995) because it continues past trade deficit problems. It does not include a balanced trade goal,…
House Ways & Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) has announced that he plans to offer a substitute amendment to a pending fast-track bill at a committee markup on Thursday (April 23) that would spell out detailed negotiating objectives for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), in a move that has the backing of House…
Last Thursday, Senators Hatch, Wyden, and Ryan introduced “The Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015,” which is the Trade Promotion Authority bill that would grant President Obama “fast track” authority for the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement. [by Michele Nash-Hoff | April 20, 2015 | Saving U.S. Manufacturing blog] The TPP agreement…
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said legislation to renew trade promotion authority and other trade bills could reach both the House and Senate floors by early May but will not be approved before a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe next week. [by Adam Behsudi | April 22, 2015 |…
(Wonk Alert) This week I’ve heard some congressional staff erroneously claim that Congress can rescind fast track procedures if the Obama administration fails to achieve the 150 negotiating objectives. This is not true. The Hatch/Wyden/Ryan trade authority bill introduced last week was promoted as an improvement over prior trade authority bills. It “puts Congress…
On the eve of a Finance Committee markup, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Tuesday (April 21) told the sponsors of the pending Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) bill that amendments seeking enforceable rules against currency manipulation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) could make it hard to conclude an agreement given the opposition that other participants…
Under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed free-trade agreement, Congress could lose the power to control immigration policy. We could find ourselves back in the era before there were restrictions on immigration and anyone from anywhere could come to our shores. And Republicans, from leaders Mitch McConnell and John Boehner on down, are unwittingly…
President Obama has a deal for America, two in fact: Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). TPA, or “fast track,” would force Congress to pass his TPP trade deal without exercising its constitutionally mandated duty to regulate foreign trade. Why? Because TPA does not allow Congress to alter even one comma…