Senate Finance Chair Warns Against TPA Amendments on Senate Floor
Senate Republicans want to prevent amendments to Trade Promotion Authority during floor consideration in order to ensure both House counterparts and Trans-Pacific Partnership countries accept the legislation, said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch-R-Utah, on April 29. Quick TPA passage could lead U.S. negotiators to close a deal with TPP parties at some point in 2015, he said at a Politico event.
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Hatch, one of the key architects of the legislation, said TPA doesn’t force lawmakers to rubber-stamp trade agreements, while pointing to a modification in the 2015 version of the bill that requires the president to make public the TPP text 60 days prior to signing it (see 1504170024). The legislation still faces at least one critical obstacle in the Senate, however, said Hatch. Finance members approved an amendment during that committee’s April 22 markup to remove TPA’s expedited procedures for consideration of trade implementation legislation for countries that hit a certain threshold of human trafficking activity (see 1504270076). TPP party Malaysia meets that threshold.
The amendment creates “a tremendous amount of worry,” said Hatch. “We could have some real delays, real difficulties.” Hatch said the House will likely be able to pass the TPA bill easier than the Senate, due to different legislative rules in that chamber. Still, Senate leadership likely wants to pass TPA by the end of May, Hatch said.