*BOG GROUP* House Passes Trade Promotion Authority - Again
In a 218-208 vote with 28 Democrats on board, the House passed TPA again, just like last week.
This time, it was a stand-alone amendment without the Senate-attached Democratic incentive of TAA. TAA was killed last week in a bizarre move by Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats, which put aid for displaced workers in jeopardy, a program supported by Democrats since 1974.
The stand-alone TPA measure has to go back to the Senate for another vote.
The Senate had passed TPA a couple weeks ago, but had sent it to the House combined with TAA legislation as an incentive to pass the entire package and send it to the president for signature.
The Senate will determine the procedures to consider TPA, but the hope still remains TPA will be on the president's desk by Fourth of July recess.
More at: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-passes-trade-promotion-authority-bill/ar-AAbN7qI
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If this trade deal ever gets ratified, which is still at least half a dozen Congressional votes away, it will be the most scrutinized piece of legislation since the Magna Carta. However, I'm expecting it to be worth the trouble.
p.s. Obama and Hillary in LA today for fundraisers and of course it's a hundred degrees plus LOL 
Last edited Fri Jun 19, 2015, 12:49 PM - Edit history (1)
I feel for her, because she's getting the same pressure as Pelosi et al. and I know she's in a tricky political situation, but. . here is what WaPo has to say:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hillary-clintons-first-hard-choice/2015/06/15/81e352c2-1395-11e5-9518-f9e0a8959f32_story.html
Understanding this, and hoping to extend past achievements into the 21st century, President Obama is seeking Trade Promotion Authority from Congress so as to negotiate a consolidation of trade relationships with Pacific Rim nations, the most crucial of which is Japan, to be followed by an agreement deepening U.S. economic ties with Europe. It may be a turning point in contemporary history; if the president succeeds, the United States’ leadership could be strengthened for a generation. If he fails, U.S. influence will ebb, and, with it, American prosperity and security alike.
Of all the people who should be standing shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Obama at this moment, none could do more to help him than Hillary Clinton, who was an enthusiastic champion of these agreements throughout her tenure as secretary of state. The resistance to Mr. Obama’s trade agenda is led by Democrats in the House who fear that supporting the president will earn them the enmity of organized labor and other progressive groups that simplistically denounce the president’s trade agenda as a threat to jobs and the environment. These Democrats are joined, and validated, in this short-sighted position by Ms. Clinton’s rivals for the Democratic nomination, former governor Martin O’Malley of Maryland and Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.).
Think of the bracing effect it might have had on her fellow Democrats if Ms. Clinton had stood up against election-year political pressure and reiterated what she said as America’s top diplomat in 2012: “that we need to keep upping our game both bilaterally and with partners across the region through agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP.” Imagine if she had read from her memoir, published just last year under the now ironic title “Hard Choices”: The TPP, Ms. Clinton wrote, “was also important for American workers, who would benefit from competing on a more level playing field. And it was a strategic initiative that would strengthen the position of the United States in Asia.”
Instead, Ms. Clinton broke her silence on the issue only long enough to equivocate about it . . With 18 months to go in his second term, she now advises Mr. Obama to use the House Democrats’ obstruction of Trade Promotion Authority as “leverage” against the 11 negotiating partners; perhaps to reopen it just as the Obama administration spent a couple of years redoing the U.S.-Korea trade deal it inherited from the Bush administration. What this politically unrealistic advice did not include, however, was a simple yes or no to the question of whether Mr. Obama should have the additional bargaining power of Trade Promotion Authority now, as he requests. And that is the question of the hour.
What a mess.
