Liberal groups are upping their pressure this week on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Nancy PelosiAs families deal with coronavirus, new federal dollars should follow the student Sunday shows - Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death dominates Hypocrisy rules on both sides over replacing Justice Ginsburg MORE (D-Calif.) to take a stand against President Obama's trade agenda.

Pelosi has raised strong objections to elements of the sweeping trade deal being negotiated by the administration with Japan and 10 other Pacific Rim nations, but she hasn't taken a public position on either that proposal or the trade promotion authority (TPA) bill that would ease passage of the broader accord.

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That silence stands in stark contrast to the loud opposition of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who was on the front lines of the unsuccessful push to kill TPA, or fast-track, in the upper chamber.

With a House vote on fast-track expected as soon as next week — and with supporters expressing increasing confidence that they have the bipartisan support to pass it — liberal groups are calling on Pelosi to take the reins of the opposition push in the lower chamber.

“As progressive opposition to fast-track intensifies, Leader Pelosi is conspicuously absent from the fight,” Murshed Zaheed, deputy political director at CREDO Action, an opposition group, said Friday in a statement.

“President Obama has chosen to side with Republicans and big corporations,” Zaheed added. "Now Leader Pelosi has to decide if she’s going to use her position to help President Obama or rally her caucus on behalf of the millions of Americans who want to stop Fast Track and the TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership].”

Democracy for America, another liberal group fighting the TPA, blasted an email to members Friday urging them to sign a petition calling on Pelosi to lead the opposition charge.

“House Democrats are under intense pressure from the president, from Republicans, and from big corporations to support Fast Track,” Jim Dean, the group's chairman, said in the email. “If Nancy Pelosi comes out against Fast Track, that will help give those Democrats important cover to stand up to the rich and powerful and stop this bad deal.”

Passed by the Senate last month, the TPA bill would grant Congress an up-or-down vote on Obama's trade deals, but prohibit amendments or a filibuster in the Senate. The extra authority is seen as a necessary step in the president's bid to finalize the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has emerged as the top economic priority of his second term.

Pelosi, who opposed the last fast-track measure in 2002, has purposefully declined to say how she'll vote this time around. Along with her top two lieutenants, Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and James Clyburn (D-S.C.), she's argued that the president should be given the time and space to make his pitch to Congress without undue pressure from leaders of his own party.

Pelosi on Thursday voiced strong objections to a $700 million offset provision for the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, an accompanying piece of the Trans-Pacific accord providing help to U.S. workers negatively affected by the deal. But she stopped short of saying she's ready to oppose the TPA based on her concerns.

“We're in the process of finishing our drilling down on certain issues and countries to see how we can do better on the TPA,” she told reporters in the Capitol.

In the eyes of the liberal groups, that's a step far too short. With Obama and GOP leaders inching closer to the votes they'll need to pass the TPA, they want Pelosi to rally Democrats against it.

“She has refused to state clearly her intentions — and her silence is tantamount to tacit support for this corporate agenda,” Justin Krebs, campaign director at MoveOn.org Civic Action, said Friday in a statement. “Leader Pelosi: If you truly represent Democrats and are committed to fighting for regular Americans, show your leadership now.”