The House on Wednesday held an incredibly lopsided vote showing that more than nine out of 10 members aren’t too worried at all that the Obama administration is negotiating trade deals that are being kept secret.
Members from both parties have said one reason they oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership it is because it’s still a classified document. Some members have been able to read it, but they weren’t allowed to take notes on it, and they haven’t said anything about what’s in the deal so far.
To fight this lack of transparency, Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., offered an amendment to a fiscal year 2016 spending bill that would have prevented affected agencies from spending any money to negotiate a trade deal whose negotiating texts are confidential.
“For the past five years, the Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated in secret,” Grayson said during Tuesday’s debate on the measure. “Only in the last few months, members of Congress have been able to see it under the most extreme conditions imaginable. I was actually the first person to be able to see it, and the trade representative came to my office with his staff and offered to show it to me, but I couldn’t take any notes.”
“It is time for a little sunlight,” he said. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
But in a Wednesday vote, almost nobody agreed with Grayson. The House voted it down 27-399, one of the biggest defeats the House has seen in years, on any bill or amendment.
During the debate, Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, explained why so many members may have voted against it. He said it makes sense to keep the deals secret for a time because TPP negotiating countries shouldn’t be privy to deals the U.S. has struck with other countries.
“I doubt the Japanese want the Australians to see what the Japanese are agreeing to,” Culberson said. “That is just common sense. I doubt that the Koreans want the Japanese to see what the Koreans are attempting to agree to.”
In the final vote, just eight Democrats supported Grayson’s language, even though many vocal Democrats, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have called on the White House to make the TPP text public. One Democrat, Rep. Peter Defazio, Ore., voted “present.”
And while many Republicans are leery of giving Obama the authority to negotiate trade agreements, only 19 GOP members voted for Grayson’s amendment.
