The White House conceded that Senate Democrats have likely blocked a procedural vote to move forward with a fast-track trade measure but cast it as a temporary setback.
“It is not unprecedented for the U.S. Senate to encounter procedural snafus,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. “That is true when Democrats were in charge of the Senate and that is true with Republicans in charge of the Senate.”
President Obama remains hopeful, he said, that Democrats and Republicans can forge a bipartisan compromise to break through “this procedural knot the Senate is engaged in.”
A group of pro-trade Senate Democrats said Tuesday that they plan to vote against a parliamentary hurdle to end debate on the bill scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
Democrats huddled together for a lengthy meeting but emerged saying proponents of the trade-promotion authority measure had not guaranteed enough worker protections.
Earnest touted an earlier bipartisan vote to move the bill out of the Senate Finance Committee as a model for what can happen on the floor if the Senate works out a compromise palatable to some Democrats who are now balking.
“Not only was it supported by Democrats on the committee, it was supported by a majority of Democrats on the committee,” he said.
Pressed whether Hillary Clinton in her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination should state her position on a pair of trade bills, Earnest demurred.
“She’s not a member of the United State Senate,” Earnest said, so he didn’t expect her to have a stated opinion on it.
