The path toward trade bills that would allow the U.S. to secure pacts with 11 Pacific Rim nations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership has had more uphill climbs and switchbacks than the Silk Road.
Trade issues, specifically trade authority for President Obama and related worker assistance programs, return to the U.S. Senate this week, following recent votes in the House that initially rejected the trade package, then broke it in to parts to win passage of the main trade bill and return it to the Senate.
The Senate is expected to take up Trade Promotion Authority, also called “fast-track” authority, today. And while both Washington state’s Democratic senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, voted for the trade bill last month, neither is a guaranteed vote this time as both look for assurances that companion legislation on labor protections can pass in the Senate and House.
Trade Adjustment Assistance, which was rejected in the House after it was broken off the Senate trade bill, would provide assistance to workers who lose their jobs to competition from imports or if production work moves overseas. The assistance can include extended unemployment benefits, subsidized health insurance and relocation assistance. Additionally, workers 50 and older can receive wage insurance that would provide 50 percent of the difference of reduced wages if they are reemployed in lower-paying work.
As dependent as this state is on trade, only three of the state’s six Democratic representatives voted to give President Obama fast-track authority, which will allow the U.S. to complete the trade agreements before bringing them back to Congress for an up-or-down vote. Reps. Rick Larsen, Suzan DelBene and Derek Kilmer, in the 1st, 2nd and 6th Congressional districts, voted for both the trade authority and worker assistance bills. In opposing trade authority, most House Democrats also rejected the trade assistance bill that would address some of their concerns about trade’s effects on workers.
Now, Murray and Cantwell are awaiting promises from Republicans in the Senate and the House that they will back the worker assistance bill, whose current programs will expire in September, in exchange for their support of the trade authority. Cantwell used a similar tactic during the last vote to get Senate Republican leadership to promise a vote on the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, another important piece of trade legislation vital to Washington state.
Passage of both the trade authority and the worker assistance bills are necessary to securing workable and beneficial deals through the Trans-Pacific Partnership. China, which is not part of the Trans-Pacific talks, already is working on its own trade agreements with many of the same Pacific Rim nations; it signed one with Australia just last week.
Bipartisan efforts in writing the trade legislation have worked to include protections for jobs and the environment. With those protections assured, the state’s Congressional delegation should back the trade bills unanimously.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
