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Obama stares down failure on trade deals with last-ditch appeal to Congress Defeat for Obama on trade as Democrats vote against him
(about 3 hours later)
Facing the possibility that one of the key legislative priorities of his second term could end in failure, Barack Obama went to Capitol Hill on Friday morning in an attempt to urge fellow Democrats to support the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. A strange coalition of Democrats and conservative Republicans came together to defeat Barack Obama in a vote on trade on Friday afternoon.
Obama has been notoriously reluctant to lobby members of Congress but is now desperate to ensure sufficient Democrat support for this trade deal. With the Democratic minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, speaking in opposition to the bill and going directly against Obama less than three hours after the president begged his party’s caucus to support it, the vote on trade adjustment assistance (TAA) – which would have provided government aid to workers who had lost their jobs because of free trade agreements – marks not just a major setback for future trade agreements but for Obama’s influence in his own caucus.
The trade deal itself is not scheduled for a vote today. The failed vote came as part of an effort by liberals to torpedo attempts by the Obama administration to pass the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal.
That deal has a much greater chance if Congress grants the president fast-track trade authority – which would mean future trade deals, such as the TPP and the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the EU, could not be amended by Congress and would simply receive an up and down vote, making it easier for the president to push them through.
After the defeat on TAA, Republican House majority leader Kevin McCarthy immediately pushed for a vote on fast-track without TAA in an attempt to salvage some sort of victory. It was narrowly approved by a margin of 219-211 with 191 Republicans and just 28 Democrats in support.
Both the House and the Senate have now approved fast-track in different forms, but there needs to be a conference to reconcile the two bills before the president is given the authority.
After the successful vote on fast-track, Republican Speaker John Boehner - the president’s unlikely ally on this issue - brought up a motion to hold a second vote on TAA again next week. If successful, this would avoid the procedural morass of a conference with the Senate and allow fast track to much more easily move forward.
The showdown on Friday created a number of strange bedfellows.
The federation of labor associations, the AFL-CIO, was actively lobbying against assistance to displaced workers and joined by conservative groups like the Club for Growth in the effort, which opposes TAA as a “wasteful welfare program”.
And this strange alliance proved enough to lead to TAA failing to achieve enough support, losing by 302 to 126, as only a small minority of Democrats backed a program that their party unanimously supported in 2011. On the Republican side, 86 representatives voted for TAA. Only 40 Democrats did so.
Some Democrats justified their opposition to TAA by raging against the TPP, with Brad Sherman of California saying: “Every lobbyist here in Washington whose job it is to increase profits is for this.”
In contrast, others, like Gregory Meeks of New York, were less than pleased with the opposition of fellow party members to TAA. “It’s not for substance,” he told the Guardian. “You can’t argue substantively to be against TAA but for the politics.”
Related: TPP fast-track vote too close to call as vocal opponents make final pushRelated: TPP fast-track vote too close to call as vocal opponents make final push
Instead, there are votes on Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), which would provide government aid to workers who had lost their jobs because of free trade agreements, and Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), which would mean future trade deals, such as the TPP and the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the EU, could not be amended by Congress and would simply receive an up and down vote, making it easier for the president to push them through. Meeks said: “Labor is killing a bill to help workers who are displaced. It doesn’t make sense. It’s not logical.”
The trade adjustment assistance vote is a particularly important one because many Democrats are loath to support any trade deal without aid for displaced workers. The deal has drawn an unprecedented lobbying effort from the Obama administration. The president made a surprise appearance at the Congressional Baseball Game on Thursday night to ask for support and spoke to a special meeting of the Democratic caucus on Friday morning to plead for support. Representative Judy Chu of California told the Guardian “I think each of one us has been called” either by member of cabinet or high-ranking White House official.
But now, those liberals deeply opposed to the TPP are willing to vote down what has long been a Democrat priority in order to bring down the entire deal. Meeks thought Obama’s speech to the caucus, where he did not take questions, helped. “I think he made a positive impact,” said Meeks. “I think it was a passionate plea, I don’t think anyone on either side can’t say that he was not sincere and gave a lot of individuals something to think about, especially those feeling pressureon the politics.”
The result has led to a jumbling of normal alliances in Washington, with the federation of labor associations the AFL-CIO lobbying against aid to workers, and the US Chamber of Commerce lobbying for aid to workers. But not all members felt that way. Representative Peter DeFazio of Oregon told reporters “basically, the president tried to both guilt people and then impugn their integrity” while Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota tweeted bitterly on Friday morning: “Now President Obama wants to talk?”
TAA though has long been opposed by many Republicans as wasteful government spending, and with some conservatives skeptical of any proposal by the Obama administration, Democrats will need to provide the bulk of the votes to move forward on TAA in the House. But, all of Obama’s efforts proved for naught after Pelosi took the floor and spoke out against the deal. She said: “While I’m a big supporter of TAA, if TAA slows down the fast track I am prepared to vote against TAA.” This marked a rare break between the House Democratic leadership and the White House.
Related: EU politicians protest to Congress over climate exemption in TPP rowRelated: EU politicians protest to Congress over climate exemption in TPP row
If that’s approved, there will then be a following vote to grant the president trade promotion authority. With Democrats overwhelmingly opposed to this pro-labor legislation, Republicans saw no need to vote yes or a bill that seemed doomed.
The Senate has already approved trade promotion authority, also known as fast track, in late May. Even the GOP has long strongly supported free trade – one Republican congressman David Schweikert of Arizona even compared fast-track opponents to Nazi propagandists, saying “Goebbels would be proud of them” on the floor of the House on Friday. The result was a major defeat both for Obama and for the House Republican leadership.