CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
June 28, 2011 – 10:26 p.m.
Bid to Move Trade Deals Could Put GOP on Spot
By Joseph J. Schatz, CQ Staff
President Obama and Senate Democrats are forging ahead with a plan to break months of gridlock on three trade deals and a worker assistance package, even as cooperation from key House Republicans remains uncertain, at least publicly.
The arrangement, primed for its first test Thursday in the Senate Finance Committee, seems designed to thread political and procedural needles. It would essentially dare some Republicans to oppose three trade deals they have long championed.
The administration and Finance Chairman
In recent weeks, the White House has demanded that Republicans agree to a renewal of expanded TAA benefits — originally enacted as part of the 2009 economic stimulus (PL 111-5) — before it sends the three George W. Bush-era trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama to Congress for final action. Congressional conservatives have resisted, saying the worker aid program is ineffective and too costly — despite its popularity among many House GOP trade advocates.
The White House plan announced Tuesday may represent a deal on substance, but it could still run into procedural hurdles. Under the strategy, the TAA package will move as part of the implementing legislation for the Korea trade deal, meaning it would be protected from amendment under “fast track” trade procedures that require Congress to vote up or down on the trade pacts within 90 days of receiving them.
Senate Finance Chairman
But Camp made clear late Tuesday that he will not endorse the Democrats’ procedural plan, deferring to House Speaker
“I have been willing to work with the White House to find a bipartisan path forward on TAA in order to secure passage of the trade agreements,” Camp said in a written statement. “. . . [T]he decision on how to move these items through the House is a matter for Republican leadership to determine.”
A statement from Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner, suggested that House Republicans remained concerned about the addition of the worker benefits.
“We’re pleased the president may finally send us the three job-creating trade agreements we’ve requested,” Steel said. “But we have long said that TAA — even this scaled-back version — should be dealt with separately from the trade agreements, and that is how we expect to proceed.”
Senate Republicans blasted the procedural arrangement.
“They’re saying that Trade Adjustment Assistance will be attached to the Korean free-trade agreement,” said Hatch, who has a strong pro-trade record but has been vocal in opposition to the TAA renewal in recent weeks. “That is really a catastrophe.”
Senate Minority Leader
Bid to Move Trade Deals Could Put GOP on Spot
White House Optimistic
Administration officials, in a Tuesday evening conference call, were sanguine and sidestepped questions about the Speaker’s position. One official said the administration is “confident we will have a process that will lead to passage of all these measures together.”
The trade deals were negotiated during the Bush administration. But they remained stalled until Obama, under pressure from the business community and pro-trade House Republicans, worked to resolve outstanding concerns with each deal last year.
The South Korea deal is considered the most economically significant since NAFTA. It would open the Korean markets — and serve as a stepping stone to the rest of Asia — for a broad range of U.S. manufacturers, agricultural producers, banks, and insurance and other services companies. The Colombia deal is a key priority for construction equipment giant Caterpillar.
Still, each of the deals faces opposition from at least some Democrats, most from states and districts with struggling manufacturing sectors.
Opposition has also emerged on the right over the benefits for displaced American workers. Conservative groups such as Heritage Action for America and the Club for Growth have been opposing any compromise on TAA.
The South Korea deal itself enjoys broad support among Republicans and Democrats, and would likely survive the defection of many Republicans. While domestic automakers opposed the original deal, Obama struck a new arrangement with Seoul on auto tariffs that helped win the endorsement of the auto sector and the United Auto Workers.
Many Democrats oppose the Colombia deal, however. Labor unions object to the Colombia pact due to a record of violence against union activists in the South American nation. While Obama got the Colombian government to commit to a new set of union protection measures, that was not enough for many Democrats and like-minded groups.
“Pushing a deal on TAA is being used as political cover to move more NAFTA-style trade agreements that will kill more American jobs in the first place, especially given our high unemployment rates,” said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch program.
Most Republicans strongly support the Colombia pact, and they are also likely to support the administration’s plan to add a renewal of trade preferences for Andean nations and the Generalized System of Preferences to the deal’s implementing legislation. So while the Colombia pact will likely prompt a tougher fight, it will not be bogged down by the same domestic spending concerns dogging the South Korea deal.
The Panama deal, meanwhile, is considered far less controversial and likely to draw support from both parties.
TAA Details
The TAA package will include “adjustments necessary to secure bipartisan support for TAA extension,” the Finance Committee said, and it seems likely to win broad support from Democrats, even if House Republicans try to move it separately from the Korea deal.
Bid to Move Trade Deals Could Put GOP on Spot
According to a White House release, the TAA deal would renew a health care tax credit for recipients — one of the primary targets of conservative ire — but scale it back. The credit would now cover 72.5 percent of premiums, down from 80 percent under the stimulus law. Before the stimulus law, the level was set at 65 percent.
Under the committee proposal, the program would again be available to service workers, reviving another benefit provided under the stimulus law.
An administration official declined to give an exact cost estimate for the TAA proposal, but said it was offset by a variety of cost-saving measures in the federal unemployment insurance program, cuts to administrative costs in Medicare and a penalty on tax preparers with bad records related to the earned-income tax credit.