Dems fold on trade Even the most ardent trade critics are reversing course and backing a bill designed to help workers.

The trade battle is over.

House Democrats have labored for weeks to stop President Barack Obama’s request for expedited authority to negotiate trade deals. But now that a “fast-track” bill has passed the Senate and is set to become law, even the most ardent trade critics are reversing course and backing a bill designed to help workers who lose their jobs because of globalization.


After privately hinting for the past few days that she might once again oppose it, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced Wednesday that she planned to vote in favor of the worker aid bill, or Trade Adjustment Assistance.

Pelosi’s reversal on TAA surprised her fellow Democrats, who were unsure how she would vote after the California Democrat opposed the legislation earlier this month, squabbled with the White House over its domestic agenda — and implied that Democrats should back Big Labor on the TAA vote even if fast-track was destined to become law.

Pelosi’s statement of support on Wednesday ended what had been three trying weeks for her — weeks that simultaneously encouraged her critics within the Democratic Caucus while still proving that she is by far the most important player in their ranks. However, Pelosi announced her support for TAA only after it became clear that a large number of her fellow Democrats were going to give in and support the measure.

Pelosi — once Obama’s most loyal ally in the House — openly clashed with the president on trade, helping to hand him an embarrassing loss on the House floor two weeks ago, despite a rare presidential trip to Capitol Hill to personally lobby House Democrats. While they praised each other during a Friday fundraiser in California, Pelosi complained during a closed-door session on Wednesday that some of her concerns about Obama on trade deals had been leaked to the White House.

TAA got jammed up in the legislative process earlier this month as House Democrats tried to stop fast-track — even though progressives have long supported the aid bill. That opposition is now crumbling. At a closed-door Democratic meeting Wednesday, lawmakers who once led the opposition movement against fast-track (which the Senate cleared Wednesday by a vote of 60 to 38) pledged to support TAA, which has been attached to a bill focused on trade in Africa.

Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland and New York Rep. Joe Crowley, vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus, formally announced their support for TAA as well, signaling that the aid bill will easily pass despite weeks of drama from House Democrats.

“I’m disappointed that the TAA bill isn’t nearly as robust as it should be in light of a trade agreement that encompasses 40 percent of the global economy,” Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues on Wednesday. “While we may not all vote in the same manner on TAA, I will support its passage because it can open the door to a full debate on [a Pacific Rim trade bill].”

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who led the charge against fast-track in the House, also announced that she planned to support the aid bill, which is expected to come to the House for a vote Thursday after the Senate passes the measure this week. And Michigan Rep. Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, told reporters after the caucus meeting that it makes no sense to oppose TAA now that pro-trade Democrats and Republicans are on the verge of sending fast-track to Obama’s desk.

“The vast majority of Democrats are going to vote for TAA, and I think so because TAA was being used as a bargaining chip for TPA and that’s why we very much resisted, but now TPA is going to become law,” Levin said. He added that the Democratic focus on trade will now turn to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive 12-country trade deal between the U.S. and other Pacific Rim countries.

Wednesday’s conciliatory finale followed months of contentious maneuvering within the Democratic Party.

DeLauro managed to rally the vast majority of the party against the White House, Republicans and the nearly 30 pro-trade House Democrats by defeating the TAA bill on the floor, throwing up a serious roadblock to Obama’s trade agenda.

Unions threatened House Democrats considering a “yes” vote — with labor activists publicly suggesting they would pull fundraising or prop up primary challengers if lawmakers supported fast-track.

The dispute exposed deep fractures within the Democratic Caucus while raising questions about Pelosi’s leadership style as members expressed frustration that she hadn’t weighed in on trade earlier.

But by Wednesday afternoon, all the drama in the caucus dissipated as the entire Democratic leadership team except for Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra of California said they would support the measure. But the relatively calm ending wasn’t clear even hours before Pelosi announced her support.

During meetings with senior Democrats on Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, Pelosi had complained that it was “an act of cowardice” for Senate Republicans to attach the worker aid measure to the African trade legislation when House Democrats were so strongly opposed to TAA. That African trade bill last passed the House with more than 300 votes and is historically an uncontroversial measure.

Members took Pelosi’s Tuesday remarks as an indication she would not vote for the package, multiple Democratic sources said.

And the California Democrat griped that the White House was putting so much energy behind a trade bill that the vast majority of the caucus didn’t support instead of focusing on other policies like the Export-Import Bank and the Highway Trust Fund. Those comments, made in a closed-door members-only meeting, were shared with the White House, Pelosi complained on Wednesday.

There was also a dust-up with the Congressional Black Caucus over the Africa trade bill that will serve as the legislative vehicle to pass TAA. Democratic Reps. Gregory Meeks and Charles Rangel of New York, Karen Bass of California and Gwen Moore of Wisconsin raised concerns during the caucus meeting that Pelosi was not yet out in support of the Africa bill, which has long been a deep priority for African-American lawmakers.

“I was really concerned that there was not strong advocacy for [the Africa bill]. I didn’t see how TAA could impede that in any way I could not see a “no” vote as a matter of conscience for any reason,” Rangel said. “There is nothing left to bargain.”