House Democrats were huddling with top administration officials on Capitol Hill early Thursday afternoon, part of a last-ditch effort by the Obama administration to secure final passage of a bill giving President Barack Obama trade promotion authority.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, as well as AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, were speaking at a 12 p.m. meeting of the House Democratic caucus. Earlier in the day, Perez spoke with the Democratic team responsible for counting the number of votes for and against trade promotion authority, and White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that Obama spoke with House Speaker John Boehner Thursday morning about trade, though he would not provide any details of their conversation.
A vote on final passage of the trade bill is scheduled for Friday in what is expected to be an extremely close contest.
Trade promotion authority, which is supported by a majority of Republicans, would grease the wheels for the massive, 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership by guaranteeing the deal an up-or-down vote with limited debate and no amendments. Trade negotiators say such fast-track approval is essential to the international negotiations, but the bill is running into opposition from liberals, who are staunchly opposed to another free trade agreement, and some conservatives, who fear placing more authority in the executive branch.
Sweetening the deal
As Democrats gather to address their concerns, Republicans have agreed to add two provisions to the trade package to attract conservative support — one stating the President cannot make any changes to immigration policies as part of trade negotiations, and another barring the administration from including any climate change provisions as part of the final TPP deal.
Meanwhile, to attract Democrats who complain that the proposed trade agreement would harm American labor, Congress is tacking on Trade Adjustment Assistance, a program that assists displaced workers. But earlier Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi insisted that federal workers be eligible for the job training program as well, putting her at odds with Boehner.
And Thursday afternoon, Democrats were balking at having to vote separately on a measure that would cut Medicare in order to pay for that program.
House Republican aides say they have already addressed concerned raised by Democrats on worker retraining issue, and agreed to pass a fix that would swap the cuts to Medicare with money raised from a tougher enforcement of a tax compliance program.
“We addressed all their ‘concerns.’ Now we see whether the President has any pull with his party to prevent a terrible embarrassment,” one senior House Republican leadership aide told CNN Wednesday.
But Democrats are fretting that they’ll be targeted by the National Republican Congressional Committee, the GOP’s campaign arm, if they vote for the original bill without the fix being passed first — and without an ironclad guarantee from the Senate that it would similarly approve that fix. Democrats worry, specifically, that Republicans could accuse them of cutting health care to seniors.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offered those assurances, saying his chamber would quickly move the separate bill, which contains other trade preferences provisions.
“The Senate passed the trade preferences bill by a vote of 97-1,” McConnell said in a statement Wednesday evening. “After the House passes this measure, the Senate will work expeditiously to approve it and send it to the President’s desk.”
The Pelosi factor
For months, Pelosi had not been a key factor in negotiations over the trade bill, but has said she’s been looking to find “a path to yes” on the legislation.
But one day before the vote on what is the White House’s top economic priority, Pelosi’s insistence on worker programs and not cutting Medicare have both pro-trade Democrats and Republicans trying to figure out the California Democrat’s angle.
On Wednesday, the White House dispatched McDonough and a handful of top trade, economic and labor aides to Pelosi’s office to discuss problems Democrats have raised with the bill. Pelosi’s spokesman downplayed the meeting with top Obama administration officials, emphasizing that the meeting on trade was already on the schedule and was a broader discussion beyond the procedural issues.
Multiple lawmakers who had met with Pelosi Wednesday night told reporters the minority leader was still working on a way to address the procedural hurdles.
One option, they said, is to re-order the votes, with the fix for Trade Adjustment Assistance coming before the trade promotion authority vote. Since the bulk of the votes for Trade Adjustment Assistance will have to come from House Democrats, Pelosi and other Democratic leaders want to resolve the issue before a vote on the House floor.
A spokesman for Pelosi, meanwhile, insisted that she is not urging members to vote no, but responding to concerns that her party’s lawmakers raised.
But Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly, who is committed to voting for the package, told reporters Wednesday that Pelosi has “kept her own counsel until now.”
“Forty-eight hours out from a vote I would have concluded — and largely did conclude — that she has decided this (Trade Adjustment Assistance) issue is of sufficient gravity to justify a ‘no’ vote, and seemed to be urging Democrats to do the same,” he said. “That was my impression.”