Senator Objects to Expedited Vote on House-Passed Taiwan Trade Bill
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., objected to a June 22 Senate motion that could have allowed the chamber to expedite procedures for a potential vote on a U.S.-Taiwan trade bill passed by the House a day earlier (see 2306220027). Cotton rejected a unanimous consent request put forward by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., saying the Senate “should not be ramming through such agreements” while lawmakers are still “studying this matter.”
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The U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade First Agreement Implementation Act “only passed out of the House last night. It’s only been on the Senate floor for barely a day,” Cotton said just before the Senate adjourned for a two-week recess. “There is more than enough time for senators and their aides over the next two weeks of recess to review this 70-page, complicated agreement and then address it in the month of July.”
Wyden called Cotton’s objection “very unfortunate,” adding that there has been an “extensive review of this particular proposal” by both parties and noting that it passed the House unanimously. “This could have been a very, very special day with the passage of this,” he said on the Senate floor. “We’re going to work together with every member of this body to get this very important trade initiative enacted into law.”