Congress House GOP poised to pursue fast-track without aid for workers Dropping Trade Adjustment Assistance risks losing Democratic support for the larger trade deal.

The House is on the brink of scheduling a standalone vote on giving President Barack Obama fast-track trade authority without accompanying worker assistance legislation, according to multiple sources familiar with the plan.

The House could vote on Trade Promotion Authority as early as this week, the sources said. The House Rules Committee, which sets parameters for the consideration of legislation, meets late Tuesday afternoon. A final decision has not been made, and top Congressional aides are in negotiations to chart a course forward. Boehner was set to meet with pro-trade Democrats at 3 p.m.


Under the current plan, House Republican leadership would likely use an already-approved Senate bill to move fast-track authority, which would allow Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) chamber to avoid a round of votes.

The Senate would amend a trade “preferences” bill with Trade Adjustment Assistance, a job-training and worker aid program, and send it to the House. This would serve to separate the two key priorities, and allow them to be sent to Obama’s desk separately.

The vote would certainly be a gamble. House Republicans would need Democrats to pass the legislation, and it’s not clear how many of them would vote for a fast-track bill without a measure to help workers who lose their jobs to trade directly attached. TAA failed last week after 144 Democrats voted against it.

“It’s going to be shared responsibility to get this done,” said Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), a leading Democratic supporter of TPA. “It’s going to require bipartisan effort, both sides willing to cooperate a little bit more than what we’ve had so far. I know there’s all eyes on the [Democratic] Caucus right now on TAA, but last time I checked, 48 Senate Republicans voted for TAA when it came up with TPA. So there’s a strong Republican support, at least in the Senate, of getting TPA passed with their votes.”

It’s not clear, however, that fast-track authority can muster enough support in the Senate without the job-training legislation.

Trade supporters don’t have many other options. Obama is unlikely to be able to flip the necessary 75 Democratic votes to pass the TPA-TAA package they crafted last week.

“It has now been abandoned, essentially,” House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said of efforts to pass TAA. “I think the thought was we can cobble together the votes for it and then send [the legislation] to the president. I think clearly they concluded that was not going to work.”

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who sees the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement as crucial, said he and Obama spoke “several” times Monday about a path forward. He is weighing how to proceed.

“There are a lot of options on the table,” Boehner said Tuesday, when asked about moving TPA on its own.

Meanwhile, the House moved Tuesday to preserve last week’s fast-track vote. Embedded in a procedural vote Tuesday was language that allows Boehner to bring up the TAA vote any time before July 30. That resolution passed, 236-189, with six Republicans voting no.

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