Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) threatened Monday (May 4) to block consideration of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation unless Senate Republicans first move on two Democratic priorities: the renewal of the highway trust fund and a bill to reform to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which authorizes data collection and eavesdropping programs for national security purposes.
[Reposted from Inside US Trade | May 4, 2015]
“[Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell said he wanted to move to trade in the next two or three weeks … maybe he can, but I don’t think he’s going to have an easy time doing it, because I will not let him do that,” Reid said in an interview with the Huffington Post. His comments were later confirmed to Inside U.S. Trade by a spokesman.
The Senate Democratic leadership could block the Senate from taking up a TPA bill by rounding up 41 votes needed to prevent cloture on a motion to proceed to the legislation. The Senate Democratic Caucus consists of 44 Democrats and two Independents.
Click here to see the remainder of the article.
