The White House on Tuesday encouraged Democrats to end their opposition to the trade adjustment assistance bill, or TAA, now that the Senate is on the road to passing a bill giving President Obama trade promotion authority, also called TPA or “Fast Track.”
House Democrats voted down a TAA bill earlier this month, and White House spokesman Josh Earnest said “they were doing it to slow down TPA.” Earnest said that with TPA on the path to Senate passage, “that will no long be a factor.”
“There’s no good reason for Democrats to do that” [block TAA],” he said. “There’s no legislative process for them to slow down TPA.” Blocking TAA would only lead to Democrats stopping the reauthorization of a program they normally support.
But while TPA and TAA have been delinked legislatively, the two issues are still connected, and the White House has reason to encourage Democrats not to scuttle the trade adjustment assistance bill. The White House has said Obama would not sign “Fast Track” unless he can also sign the trade adjustment assistance bill on the same day, so effectively, Democrats may still be able to kill TPA by blocking TAA.
Earnest stressed that the White House wants to sign both, and that both should be signed and sent to Obama for his signature.
There is a “clear path” for the TAA bill “to arrive at the president’s desk” now that the Senate advanced TPA.
“That’s what the president is counting on and what the president is looking forward to signing into law,” Earnest said, explaining that Obama has assurances from both House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to bring a TAA bill to the floor as soon as possible.
Earnest also downplayed that Obama could somehow find himself in a situation where TPA lands on his desk without TAA.
“The problem is it’s a hypothetical,” Earnest responded when asked if Obama would sign just TPA. “It shouldn’t come to that.”
