Setback for future trade agreements as strange coalition of Democrats and conservative Republicans come together to defeat president

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A strange brew of Democrats and conservative Republicans came together on Friday to defeat Barack Obama in a crippling blow to his international trade agenda.

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 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.

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After the defeat on TAA, which Obama asked Congress to reconsider, 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.

In a statement, Boehner acknowledged that “the outcome of today’s TAA vote was disappointing”, and noted: “Republicans did our part, and we remain committed to free trade because it is critical to creating jobs and growing our economy.

“I’m pleased that a bipartisan House majority supported trade promotion authority. This is an opportunity for the Democratic party to take stock and move forward in a constructive fashion on behalf of the American people.”



In contrast, Pelosi said: “The overwhelming vote today is a clear indication that it’s time for Republicans to sit down with Democrats to negotiate a trade promotion authority bill that is a better deal for the American people.”

In an attempt to use the congressional deadlock as an opportunity to gain leverage on a key Democratic priority, she added: “The prospects for passage of a such a bill will greatly increase with the passage of a robust highway bill.”

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.”

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Meeks said: “Labor is killing a bill to help workers who are displaced. It doesn’t make sense. It’s not logical.”

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.

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 pressure

on the politics.”

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?”

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.

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With Democrats overwhelmingly opposed to this pro-labor legislation, Republicans saw no need to vote yes for a bill that seemed doomed.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest brushed off the vote as “a procedural snafu” on Friday. He urged House Democrats to support TAA now that “they have registered their objections” to fast-track trade authority.

However, despite repeated questions from reporters, Earnest did not rule out Obama approving fast-track without TAA if that combination somehow made it through procedural hurdles in the Senate.

In a statement, Obama said the TAA offered the economy “vital” support and that House members were directly hurting the economy.

“Republicans and Democrats in the House failed to renew it today,” the president said, “and that inaction will directly hurt about 100,000 workers and their communities annually if those Members of Congress don’t reconsider.”

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. And, even with the failure of TAA, the House Republican leadership was still able to salvage a partial victory in the procedural fast track vote.

But for Obama, this was an unmitigated defeat as one of the key priorities of his second term was overwhelmingly rejected by his own party.