Lawmakers Prepare to Send TPA to Obama, Pass Preferences Legislation
The Senate is poised pass standalone Trade Promotion Authority on June 24, and will continue to push forward on the trade preferences package in order to shoot that legislation over to the House by June 25, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in comments on the Senate floor on June 24. Senate leadership is likely to hold the TPA vote on June 24 at 5:30 p.m. unless lawmakers reach an agreement to do so earlier in the day, said staffers with Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas.
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The Senate is likely to deliver a “key victory” to American manufacturers and agriculture producers with the passage of TPA, said McConnell. But “the Senate's work on trade doesn't end today; I said the Senate would finish pursuing the rest of the full trade package, and it will,” said McConnell. He vowed to also hold a cloture vote on the preference bill on June 24.
A number of trade lobbyists said both bills are likely to sail through the chamber over the next 24 hours. “What we know now is TPA is going to the president’s desk and he’ll sign it,” said Simon Rosenberg, president of the pro-free trade New Democrat Network, on June 24. “I’m optimistic [Trade Adjustment Assistance] is going to pass also.” TAA is now part of the preferences package, alongside the Senate’s Leveling the Playing Field Act. The underlying preferences bill renews the African Growth and Opportunity Act, the Generalized System of Preferences and two Haiti tariff preference level programs.
Trade supporters increasingly argue President Barack Obama won’t veto TPA if TAA fails to arrive at his desk. White House spokesman Josh Earnest declined to predict Obama’s position on any link between the two bills during a briefing on June 23. “I don’t have a time frame to lay out for you right now in terms of when the President will sign one bill or the other, but the President certainly expects to be in a position to sign both of them,” he said. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, plans to pass the preferences bill before the House departs for the weekend (see 1506220047). House action on trade this week would require a vote by June 25.
The Senate could even get to a final vote on the preferences bill by the end of the day on June 24, said Brian Diffell, a trade lobbyist with the Washington Tax & Public Policy Group. “The Senate’s goal is to wrap it up as quickly as possible and could seek consent to pass the preference bill as early as today,” he said, adding that House leadership is also eager to complete work on trade by June 25. The House vote on the preference legislation is still up in the air, however, and leadership from both parties aren’t actively whipping the vote, said lawmakers and lobbyists. “I don’t think House leadership is whipping the preference bill,” said Washington lobbyist Ron Sorini. “I don’t think they want to approach it now before TPA is finished. That’s somewhat putting the cart before horse.”
In a briefing on June 24, a member of the House Democratic leadership team, Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., said Democrats also are leaving the decision up to members. “Leadership has decided to let members to move in the direction their conscience tells them to,” said Becerra. “We’re also mindful that we’re never certain what will come before us for a vote until the day of the vote.” Becerra described the preferences bill as still “woefully inadequate.” Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., who spoke alongside Becerra, said he would support the bill.
Democrats, led by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Sandy Levin, D-Mich., joined Republicans to defeat TAA on June 12 in a high-profile rejection of Obama’s trade agenda. But TAA and TPA are now disconnected legislatively. One lobbyist said Levin is edging closer to voting in favor of the bill.
Democratic defeat of the preferences bill would be “akin to cutting off your nose to spite your face,” said Earnest. “The fact is the previous explanation that we heard from some Democrats who voted against trade adjustment assistance -- something that Democrats have steadfastly supported for decades -- is that they were doing that in an effort to slow down the advancement of trade promotion authority legislation,” he said. “But pending final passage of that bill in the Senate that will no longer be a factor to consider when Democrats and Republicans in both the House and the Senate have to make a decision about whether or not to support trade adjustment assistance.”
Hundreds of U.S. companies and industry associations pushed lawmakers to support the preference bill in a June 24 letter (here), arguing quick renewal of the preference programs will help businesses beleaguered by GSP expiration and a looming AGOA lapse. Sorini said the trade community wants all these bills completed in the coming days, but a minor hiccup in the process won’t derail movement on trade. “Sooner is always better, but the Haiti programs don’t expire for a while. AGOA doesn’t expire until September,” said Sorini. “Everyone wants to see GSP get done, but whether the bills are signed into law before or after the July 4 break isn’t really a big deal.”