17 June Update: According to an unnamed GOP aide quoted in the Washington Examiner, having Congress pass TPA without TAA is the president’s “preferred path at the moment.” How a GOP aide knows what the president prefers is one thing, but if that aide is right…End Update
The House of Representatives may vote today at some point in the next six weeks on Trade Adjustment Assistance, which everyone in Washington insists must be paired with Trade Promotion Authority to enact either. Everyone says that…except the Administration, whose press secretary “declined to say directly whether Obama would veto TPA without TAA” (National Journal). This by itself should be enough to delay the pairing. If we can get TPA without TAA, it would be far better for America, especially Virginia.
TAA (which was actually separate from TPA until the Senate paired them into the same bill) was originated in the Kennedy era as part of the price of letting Kennedy negotiate trade deals – without final Congressional approval. Congress has since, of course, insisted on a final vote for all trade deals since 1974, but TAA has lived on ever since, despite a Mathematica report for the Department of Labor that found TAA cost its own participants about $26,800. It is truly nonsensical. From a simple perspective, TAA should be allowed to expire in September.
Of course, the perspective isn’t that simple. The Senate joined TAA and TPA together as one bill. For reasons known only to itself, the House leadership kept the bill in one piece but split the vote on it. The TAA piece fell, but the TPA section passed. The assumption of many (including myself) was that without TAA, TPA was impossible. Having now seen Press Secretary Earnest’s ambivalence, I’m not so sure anymore.
TPA is a definite plus for America and Virginia, especially when one looks beyond the Trans-Pacific Partnership to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which would greatly increase trade in Atlantic ports (including the Port of Virginia). TAA is another matter. I would humbly submit it would be worth a small delay to get clarification from the president and other pro-TPA Democrats on this. As good as TPA would be, it would be a lot better without TAA.
@deejaymcguire | facebook.com/people/Dj-McGuire | DJ’s posts
