UPDATE - Trade bill passes House in victory for Bush
Date: 07-Dec-01
Country: USA
Author: Richard Cowan and Doug Palmer
The House voted 215-214 to pass the measure and it now goes to the Senate, where Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, has promised action on the legislation in his committee next week.
The legislation would allow the president to negotiate trade agreements that Congress could approve or reject, but not amend.
"I commend the House of Representatives for passing legislation that will restore our nation's authority to negotiate trade agreements," Bush said in a statement.
"Now that the House has acted, I urge the Senate to move quickly to send me a Trade Promotion Authority bill I can sign," he added.
Supporters say without the authority other countries would refuse to negotiate seriously with the United States because Congress could tinker with any pact.
The one-vote victory came amid intense last-minute lobbying by Republican leaders on the House floor, with Democrats at one point appearing to have mustered enough votes to narrowly defeat the measure.
Republican leaders ignored a request by Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Ohio Democrat, to bring the vote to a close when the tally stood for several minutes at 214-210 in favor of opponents of the legislation.
LABOR, ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
The vote, handing the president a key victory on the slimmest of margins, moves Congress one step closer to ending a seven-year impasse on how to handle labor and environmental concerns associated with trade.
A sharp disagreement between Republicans and Democrats on those issues has blocked renewal of trade promotion authority - which is also known by its older name of "fast track" - since it last expired in 1994.
The Bush administration says it needs the legislation to conclude negotiations on several pending trade agreements, including bilateral pacts with Singapore and Chile, a regional agreement covering 34 countries in the Western Hemisphere and a pact with the 142 members of the World Trade Organization.
The bill crafted by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, a California Republican, and three moderate Democrats puts labor and environmental on par with other trade negotiating for the first time in a fast track bill.
However, a substantial number of pro-trade Democrats opposed the bill, saying the language on labor and the environment was not strong enough.
They also pushed for more power for Congress to halt trade negotiations than the Thomas bill would allow.
When the debate began earlier yesterday in the House, both sides had held back from predicting victory, as it was seen as too close to call.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters the president had made about a half dozen calls yesterday to persuade waverers to support the House bill.
In a move aimed at persuading reluctant Democrats to vote for the bill, House Republican leaders this week offered to provide at least $20 billion in new aid to workers who have lost jobs because of the Sept. 11 attacks or the current economic recession.