President Barack Obama’s push for free trade got another boost on Thursday, when a House panel passed legislation setting up trade promotion authority, allowing deals negotiated by the administration to get a vote in Congress without any amendments.
The House Ways and Means Committee approved the legislation on a near party-line vote. On Wednesday night the Senate Finance Committee approved its companion bill.
But as the measure heads to the House floor for a vote potentially next month it faces fierce opposition from the vast majority of House Democrats.
The top House Democrat, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, sidestepped efforts to take a position on the bill backed by the President. Instead said she was working to ensure any trade bill protected the jobs in the U.S.
“Is what is being put forth better to –than the status quo? In some cases, yes; in some cases, no,” she said on Thursday. “But … weighing all of those equities, what does it come down to for increasing the paycheck of American workers?”
House Speaker John Boehner predicted the legislation would ultimately be approved, but said Thursday, “This bill is always a heavy lift.”
The President, meanwhile, voiced frustration that some fellow Democrats were disparaging his trade agenda.
“When people say these trade deals are bad for working families they don’t know what they’re talking about,” he said. “I take that personally.”
The President said his entire record reflected boosting working families — and lambasted fellow Democrats who he characterized as grabbing onto his populist coattails.
“I’ve been talking about reversing income inequality and social mobility since before it was cool,” he said. “I’ve got a bunch of people now talking about inequality. But back then they sure weren’t.”
“Back then people were saying I was preaching class warfare,’ he said. “Now suddenly it’s their campaign platforms.”
Trade promotion authority has been handed at points to every president since Richard Nixon. Bill Clinton used it to pass the North American Free Trade Agreement, and deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama were green-lighted early in Obama’s presidency under authority that had been originally given to George W. Bush.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is the first deal that could advance under the authority, since negotiators have said they’re close to finalizing the pact, which includes all of North America, Australia, Japan — which is the real pearl of the deal in U.S. businesses’ eyes — and a handful of other Asia-Pacific countries.
But another one, which would smooth out regulatory differences in areas like vehicle safety rules and chemical inspections between the United States and the European Union, could follow it.