House Passes TPA as Trade Legislative Strategy Continues to Take Shape
The House passed a standalone Trade Promotion Authority bill 218-208 on June 18 in a move that now sends the bill back to the Senate. Final approval in that chamber would send TPA to President Barack Obama for his signature, but lawmakers and experts expect more procedural wrangling between the two chambers before that takes place. The House TPA bill is now an amendment (here) to HR-2146, an unrelated revenue bill (here).
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Trade lobbyists and other experts said the Senate is likely to now begin the process to roll TAA into the preference package in order to pass that legislation and send it back to the House. Minor differences remain between the House and Senate preference bills (see 1506120015), but both include renewals for the African Growth and Opportunity Act, Generalized System of Preferences and two Haiti tariff preference level programs. The June 18 vote largely resembled the partisan split over TPA six days ago, the first time TPA went before the House this Congress (see 1506150034). Trade experts predicted the standalone TPA vote the day before it happened, as Republican leadership plans gathered momentum throughout the course of June 16 (see 1506170022).
Many House Democrats, however, lashed into that strategy on the House floor in the minutes before the June 18 TPA vote. Lawmakers are trying to abuse the non-controversial nature of the preference package as a vehicle for other agendas, said Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., one of the biggest champions of AGOA renewal in Congress. “Unfortunately the bill is the victim of its own success,” said Bass. “AGOA can and should stand on its own.”
The Republican leadership has provided sufficient assurances that Trade Adjustment Assistance will receive another vote on the House floor, said Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., one of the biggest Democratic supporters of TPA in the House. Other House Democrats questioned and disputed guarantees TAA will again see the light of day. Democrats and Republicans rallied together to defeat the TAA on June 12 (see 1506160045). A group of House Democrats that are considered likely TPA supporters met with Obama at the White House on June 17 (here).
The House passed a rule to allow a vote on the TPA standalone legislation an hour before the actual vote on June 18. Only a handful of House Democrats joined with Republicans to endorse the measure. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., a Rules Committee member, called the vote “appalling” in the lead-up to the vote. “Why can’t members of both sides of the aisle have the opportunity to make their views known on this important issue?” he asked rhetorically. The Rules Committee approved on June 16 rules to limit debate to one hour and bar amendments (here).
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, pledged to move ahead on trade legislation. “We are committed to ensuring both TPA and TAA get votes in the House and Senate and are sent to the President for signature,” they said. “And it is our intent to have a conference on the customs bill and complete that in a timely manner so that the President can sign it into law.”