AFL-CIO Ramps Up FTA Opposition, Pressures Wyden with Anti-TPA Ads
The current Trade Promotion Authority model allows the administration to negotiate trade deals unilaterally and in secret, while muscling implementation bills through the body with “preferential and expedited treatment,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a March 25 letter to senators. Trumka flatly rejected the basic principles of TPA and called U.S. trade policy “corporate entitlement.” The network of unions recently cut off campaign funding indefinitely for this election cycle (see 1503110027).
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The AFL-CIO doesn’t want a new version of the bill to bog down the legislative process with amendments, but the bill should better enable Congress to force renegotiation of “bad deals,” Trumka said in the letter. “Some in Congress have implied that this simple process is too much to ask, but this shows just how dysfunctional U.S. trade policy is,” said Trumka. The current model, based off legislation introduced in the last Congress, removes the amendment process and requires an up-or-down vote in a 90-day period. Trumka also said more House and Senate committees, on top of just Senate Finance and House Ways and Means, should be involved in the legislative process for implementation bills.
Trumka addressed the House Democratic caucus on TPP investment and labor on March 25, an AFL-CIO spokesman said. The organization also released newspaper (here) and radio (here) ads in Oregon to pressure Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to oppose TPA. Wyden is locked in an ongoing negotiation with Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, over changes to the bill. Lawmakers haven’t yet released a TPA bill in this Congress.
Email ITTNews@warren-news.com for a copy of the Trumka letter.