WASHINGTON — Union-backed Democrats launched a last-ditch effort Thursday to scuttle President Barack Obama’s trade agenda by sacrificing a favored program of their own that retrains workers displaced by international trade.
The retraining program was linked to the Democrats’ real target: legislation to help Obama advance multination trade agreements. In hopes of bringing down the whole package, which they say imperils jobs at home, numerous House Democrats said they would vote Friday against the retraining measure.
House Republicans were in the odd position of supporting Obama’s bid for “fast-track” trade-negotiating authority, while the White House struggled to come up with enough Democratic votes to win passage.
In a closed meeting in the Capitol, top White House officials implored Democrats not to deny Obama the trade authority. Such a vote, they said, would block needed trade expansion for the nation and sink a major priority of the Democratic president.
The sometimes-emotional exchanges illustrated the high stakes and intense feelings surrounding Obama’s bid for “fast track” trade-negotiating authority. Such authority, which previous presidents have enjoyed, would let Obama present Congress with proposed trade agreements that it could ratify or reject but not change.
Obama hopes to advance the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership and other proposals that have been negotiated for years.
Unions vehemently oppose such deals, saying they ship U.S. jobs abroad.
AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka urged House Democrats to do something once unthinkable — reject the retraining program, known as Trade Adjustment Authority, or TAA — as the best means to kill fast track. Those attending the meeting said Trumka told Democrats he would pray for those who oppose the unions’ position.
Some of the highest-ranking Democrats are with Trumka.
Fast track and the jobs program “are linked, so if TAA doesn’t pass, it puts a hold on both,” said Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee. “I’m urging people to vote against it.”
