There may be growing discontent among Senate Republicans over legislation that would give President Obama expedited authority to approve international trade deals.
The GOP uncertainty comes as Senate Republican leaders plan to move the legislation to the floor next week with the inclusion of a provision aimed at attracting now-scarce Democratic support.
“We are going to be voting on that on Tuesday,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told the Washington Examiner.
Some Republican lawmakers emerging from a closed-door meeting on Wednesday said they won’t back the legislation in its current form and are calling for tougher language to control currency manipulation as well as the president’s ability to make changes to immigration policy.
The uncertainty in the Senate comes as House Republicans remain far from finding the 218 votes needed to pass the bill.
Democrats in both chambers almost uniformly oppose the legislation, which President Obama supports, in part because union groups are lobbying against it. Democrats from manufacturing states say past trade deals, including the Clinton-era North American Free Trade Agreement, damaged their economies.
Some conservatives, meanwhile, oppose the bill because it cedes more power to the executive branch by restricting review and amendment by Congress and lowering the threshold for passage from 67 votes to 51 votes.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is opposed to the deal and many in his caucus of 46 lawmakers are aligned with him.
“We lose jobs every time we pass a trade agreement,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told the Examiner.
The legislation will include a lure for Democrats, Cornyn said, in the form of adding a provision known as Trade Adjustment Assistance, a measure aimed at helping businesses and workers negatively impacted by trade deals.
Cornyn said “it’s my hope” that all 54 Republicans will vote for the bill, but a few have so far declined to pledge their support, including Sens. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Richard Burr, R-N.C.
Sen Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who served as U.S. Trade Representative under President George W. Bush, said lawmakers would like to see the legislation amended to control currency manipulation by China, which trade agreement critics believe has damaged the U.S. economy.
Portman and Democrat Sen. Debbie Stabenow, of Michigan, are planning to introduce an amendment to the legislation that would require the trade deal to hold foreign trade partners accountable to the International Monetary Fund’s current standards.
“If the currency manipulation memo is included, it would help,” Portman said, when asked whether the bill has the support to clear the Senate next week.
Burr said he might support the legislation, but only if it includes the currency manipulation provision. “I want a level playing field,” Burr said. “If you take it to the Senate floor, I believe that will be part of the legislation. I don’t see how it gets off the floor” without it.
Burr said he is also pushing for the inclusion of the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, which is a measure that would lower taxes on U.S. manufacturers.
Other lawmakers are opposed to language they believe would provide Obama the power to change immigration policy by allowing him to expand the influx of foreign workers into the United States from countries who are trading partners.
Obama and Republican leaders who support the legislation deny such power is authorized in the deal, but Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., a leading Senate immigration watchdog, is unconvinced.
“I believe the treaty allows the president to expand immigration law,” Sessions said. “I plan to have an amendment to stop that.”
Sessions said past trade deals have resulted in more imports and fewer U.S exports, leading to a growing trade deficit, which rose to $51.4 billion in March.
“Are we confident it’s good policy for the American people?” Sessions said. “I’m not.”
