Ron Wyden

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., continues to be a key player in the debate over international trade policy.

(The Associated Press )

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, who has been taking heat from fellow Democrats for cutting a deal with Republicans on international trade legislation, on Tuesday stuck with his party in casting a crucial vote that blocked the measure from consideration by the full Senate.

The vote was seen as a major blow to President Barack Obama, who was in Oregon last week trying to rally support for a massive Pacific Rim trade pact opposed by most of his usual allies.

Wyden said he stuck with fellow Democrats because Republican leaders failed to follow through on a deal he reached with them to bring a package of four trade bills to the floor. They included some concessions to Democrats on such issues as cracking down on countries that manipulate their currencies to gain a trading advantage.

"Until there is a path to get all four bills passed ... we will, certainly most of us, have to vote no," Wyden told reporters after meeting privately with about 10 Democratic senators generally supportive of trade legislation. Among them were Washington Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.

In the end, only one Democrat, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., voted with the Republicans, who fell well short of the 60-vote majority they needed to proceed. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he was willing to consider Democratic changes to the two trade bills that Republicans had decided to bring to the floor.

Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, has been a key supporter of so-called "fast track" legislation that would lay out the terms for consideration of the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership. That's a 12-nation trade pact favored by most of the business community -- including Intel, Nike and other major employers in Oregon -- but staunchly opposed by organized labor and a number of other left-of-center groups.

The Oregon senator has repeatedly said that the deal he negotiated with Republicans includes a number of provisions that would help protect American workers and improve on previous trade pacts that critics have said helped speed the loss of manufacturing jobs to Asia.

"It's an opportunity to enact fresh, middle-class trade policies that will create high-skill, high-wage jobs in Oregon and across the country," Wyden said in a statement issued after the vote Tuesday. "That opportunity is lost if this package of four bills gets winnowed down to two."

Sandra McDonough, who heads the Portland Business Alliance, said she didn't think the vote doomed progress on trade legislation.

"I don't think it's the end of it at all," said McDonough, calling Tuesday's action a "test vote."

McDonough, who recently joined other Oregon business leaders in lobbying for trade legislation on Capitol Hill, said she didn't believe Wyden had abandoned her side.

"He is very smart politically, and I'm sure he did that to keep open to continued negotiations and to show his colleagues he shares their concerns," she said, adding, "We have a lot of confidence in his ability to to move this forward."

Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain, who has joined other labor leaders in criticizing Wyden's trade stance, said he was pleased that the senator was following through on his promise to try to improve on previous trade pacts.

"That's what he promised, and today, that's what he delivered," said Chamberlain, adding that even if all four bills were passed by the Senate, the Oregon AFL-CIO would continue to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

-- Jeff Mapes

503-221-8209

@Jeffmapes