Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked a critical trade bill, dealing a blow to President Obama’s efforts to win “Fast Track” powers to secure new trade agreements with other countries.
The vote was 52-45, falling eight votes short of the 60 votes needed to begin debating the legislation.
Most of the votes against the bill came from Democrats, who oppose new trade deals they say damage the U.S. economy and lead to the loss of manufacturing jobs. Only one Democrat, Tom Carper, of Delaware, voted to proceed to the bill.
Democratic leaders said they objected to the bill because it does not include a trade enforcement provision to curb currency manipulation and another provision that allows sub-Saharan nations to export goods including oil and clothes to the U.S. duty free.
Republicans said the enforcement provision would serve as a poison pill because other countries would not agree to it as part of future trade pacts.
“The Democrats know that the president cannot take that language,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. “They also know that the House will not be able to take that language.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the vote “pretty shocking,” although the blocked bill was a foregone conclusion hours before the vote began, thanks to mounting Democratic opposition.
Hatch said the bill may now be dead, but McConnell signaled he is likely to take it up again.
“This doesn’t have to be the end of the story,” McConnell said after the vote. “I suspect we have colleagues on the other side who aren’t comfortable filibustering economic benefits for their constituents or the president who leads their party.
“We will continue to engage with both sides.”
Majority Whip John Cornyn said pro-trade Democrats who voted against the measure are working with the GOP in search of a compromise.
“I know already that some of them are reaching out to us and saying, how do we find a way forward,” Cornyn said. “And ultimately, it’s up to the president.”
The debate over the trade authority legislation spilled into the 2016 presidential race.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and former Arkansas Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee said they oppose the trade deal, as did Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Huckabee said the legislation would cede too much authority to President Obama, who has generated intense mistrust among Republicans over his use of executive authority to try to allow illegal immigrants to obtain work permits and federal benefits.
“I wouldn’t trust this administration to negotiate a deal on a secondhand Subaru — let alone a multi-trillion dollar trade deal,” Huckabee wrote in a Daily Caller op-ed. “It’s time we get trade deals right, and that starts by having a clear, transparent discussion on the front end.”
Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, meanwhile, pushed for passage of the deal.
“Putting Obama’s missteps aside, [Trade Promotion Authority] is good for America,” Romney wrote on his Facebook and Twitter pages.
