The House on Friday dealt a staggering blow to President Barack Obama’s trade agenda, as Democrats turned en masse against the president just hours after he made a direct appeal to salvage a centerpiece of his second-term platform.
Lawmakers easily defeated a measure to help workers displaced by free trade known as Trade Adjustment Assistance. The aid package needed to pass in order to enact companion legislation that would give Obama fast-track trade authority to complete the sweeping, 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact.
The vote on the TAA bill was 126-302.
“Whatever the deal is with other countries,” Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said before the vote, breaking her longtime silence on the issue, “we want a better deal for America’s workers.”
The vote came after President Barack Obama, in a last-ditch effort, made a rare visit to the Capitol to lobby for legislation. He implored Democrats to “play it straight” on the decisive vote.
Obama spent roughly 40 minutes with Democratic lawmakers, taking no questions but telling his party to “vote your values,” according to a source in the room.
But Democratic lawmakers rebuffed him hours later, voting overwhelmingly to scuttle the trade package that was a centerpiece of the president’s second-term agenda. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had remained silent for weeks on the trade issue, went to the House floor shortly before the vote to speak against the trade deal.
Afterward, Pelosi linked trade to her party’s uphill effort to enact a long-term highway funding bill. “The prospects for passage of” the trade bill, she wrote in a letter to fellow Democrats, “will greatly increase with the passage of a robust highway bill.”
After TAA failed, the House approved fast-track legislation, known as Trade Promotion Authority, in a 219-211 vote. But that vote was largely for show, because enactment of TPA is contingent on approval of TAA.
The House could vote again on TAA next week. If enough votes flipped to pass it, it would mean that TPA prevailed as well, because the two bills are interconnected.
House Republican leaders say they have 100 votes for TAA, and Democrats would need to provide 118 if another vote happens. On Friday, Democrats provided 40 votes for TAA, while 86 Republicans supported it. In other words, Democrats would need to essentially triple their vote total to pass the measure.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest downplayed the defeat as a “procedural snafu,” comparing it to the Senate’s initial rejection of the legislation before it was later adopted.
“To the surprise of very few, another procedural snafu has emerged,’’ Earnest told reporters. “These kinds of entanglements are endemic to the House of Representatives.’’
With his trade push on the ropes, Obama headed to Capitol Hill Friday morning to plead with his party to bail him out. The president needed to convince Democrats to back TAA, which would provide aid and retraining to workers who lose their jobs to trade agreements. The TAA bill was intertwined with legislation to give Obama Trade Promotion Authority.
Rep. Peter DeFazio said he thought Obama “tried to guilt people and impugn their integrity.”
House Democrats — most of whom have been firmly entrenched in their position for weeks — emerged from the meeting with the president still divided. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a pro-trade Democrat from Oregon, said Obama “hit it out of the park.”
“It was a powerful presentation,” Blumeuaer said. But another supporter, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said afterward it would be an “uphill climb to get to 217,” referring to the number of votes needed to pass a bill.
That turned out to be an understatement.
“TAA has always been an absolute admission to me that there is going to be lots of lost jobs,” Rep. Louise Slaughter, a top House Democrat from New York, said before the vote. Multiple Democrats echoed that sentiment on the House floor.
There was also palpable anger at the president leading up to the vote. Rep. Peter DeFazio said he thought Obama “tried to guilt people and impugn their integrity.”
“There was a number of us who were insulted,” DeFazio (D-Ore.) said in an interview after the meeting with Obama.
Obama acknowledged the uncertainty surrounding the Friday vote, which turned out to be much more lopsided than anyone expected.
“I don’t think you ever nail anything down around here, it’s always moving,” the president told reporters after he spoke with lawmakers.
Republicans and Democrats were predicting ahead of the vote that TAA was headed for defeat — bringing fast track down with it — unless the dynamic dramatically shifted this morning. Obama’s visit to Capitol Hill, a rare round of personal lobbying by a president not known for his relationships with lawmakers, was designed to do just that.
Obama arrived at Pelosi’s second-floor Capitol office suite at 9:41 a.m., waving to a small group of reporters gathered in the hallway. He walked into the House Democratic Caucus meeting with Pelosi and Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the assistant minority leader.
Obama also made an appearance at the congressional baseball game on Thursday night, and top administration officials — including Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough — have been meeting with Democrats for the past several days.
Some Democrats were clearly unmoved by the direct appeal from the commander-in-chief.
“We’re going to win today,” Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), a member of the Ways and Means Committee, declared before the meeting with Obama. “No on both.”
The eleventh hour drama came as top lawmakers and aides said they had no idea going in how Friday’s momentous vote would play out.
Defeating the jobs aid bill, the Democratic leader said minutes before the vote, “is the only way we will be able to slow down fast track.”
Pelosi (D-Calif.) had been mum on both bills bill, which created an opening for liberal opposition to TAA to swell. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said he planned to vote for TAA, but didn’t signal his position on the larger fast-track bill. Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the assistant Democratic leader, was undecided.
House Republican leaders needed a large number of Democrats to vote for TAA in order for it to pass.
“I think Republicans are going to provide a share of their votes based upon what Republicans have done in the past, and it’s up to the Democrat leadership and the president to get Democrats on board,” Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio) said on Thursday. He, along with House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), led the pro-trade whip operation.
Democrats have traditionally backed TAA, with its focus on helping struggling unemployed workers. But Democrats complained to White House officials this week that the TAA package was too small, and argued the president should be leaning on Republicans to enlarge it.
But many Democrats came to view the jobs assistance bill as a way to sink the entire trade package.
Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Sandy Levin (Mich.), the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, led the push for Democrats to vote against TAA. And they were joined, in the end, by Pelosi.
Defeating the jobs aid bill, the Democratic leader said minutes before the vote, “is the only way we will be able to slow down fast track.”