Sanders, Sessions Say No to TPP Lame-Duck Vote After White House Begins Legislative Process
Lawmakers across the political spectrum spoke out against a lame-duck congressional vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, after President Barack Obama Aug. 12 started the Capitol Hill review process for the deal by sending a draft Statement of Administrative Action to lawmakers (see 1608120052 and 1608120020). Sens. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., each released a statement critical of TPP on Aug. 12. “In my view, it is now time for the leadership of the Democratic Party in the Senate and the House to join Secretary Clinton and go on the record in opposition to holding a vote on this job-killing trade deal during the lame-duck session of Congress and beyond,” Sanders said in a statement (here). “We need to defeat this treaty and fundamentally rewrite our trade policies to create good-paying jobs in this country and throughout the world and end the race to the bottom. I will continue to do everything I can to make sure that the TPP does not get implemented.” Noting his disappointment with Obama’s continued push for TPP ratification, Sanders said “every trade union” in the U.S. and “virtually the entire grassroots base of the Democratic Party” opposes the agreement.
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Sessions indicated that Americans showed through their endorsements of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the presidential primaries that they're against TPP. "President Obama knows that the only chance he has of passing the TPP is during this short window," Sessions said (here). "His determination flies in the face of the clear will of the American people, as demonstrated in the primaries." Sessions said "powerful forces" are working hard to promote a "globalist agenda that the people oppose." The U.S. will still trade if it doesn't ratify TPP, which runs the risk of continuing a trend of shuttering U.S. manufacturing plants and slashing jobs, Sessions said. Like British citizens who voted for "Brexit," U.S. citizens are voting to "keep policy choices close to home, made by people accountable to them, [and] not offshore those decisions," he said. Obama has acknowledged that TPP is currently a "political football" (see 1608030017), and the White House said it is pushing for lame-duck ratification of the deal as recently as July 29 (see 1608010018). Rep. Bruce Poliquin, R-Maine, also said in a statement he'd vote against TPP if it comes up for a vote (here). "This is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue," he said. "This is about jobs. This is about Maine jobs. I cannot and will not support this deal."