Bill to fast-track Trans-Pacific Partnership blocked in U.S. Senate (for now)

Divi­sive trade pro­mo­tion author­i­ty leg­is­la­tion the White House is seek­ing to put the Trans-Pacif­ic part­ner­ship on a fast-track to pas­sage ran off the rails today, with the Unit­ed States Sen­ate vot­ing most­ly along par­ty lines not to invoke clo­ture on the bill. The leg­is­la­tion could still come up again, but at least for the time being, it is blocked, much to the dis­plea­sure of Mitch McConnell and Barack Obama.

Fifty-two sen­a­tors vot­ed to pro­ceed to final pas­sage on the bill, not count­ing McConnell, who switched his vote from yes to no so that he could bring the leg­is­la­tion up again lat­er. Forty-four sen­a­tors vot­ed to filibuster.

Although a num­ber of Democ­rats sup­port grant­i­ng Pres­i­dent Oba­ma the fast-track author­i­ty he wants (includ­ing, unfor­tu­nate­ly, the Pacif­ic North­west­’s Pat­ty Mur­ray, Maria Cantwell, and Ron Wyden), they all vot­ed to fil­i­buster today, with the lone excep­tion of Thomas Carp­er of Delaware.

The rea­son? Lever­age. Fast-track is a major pri­or­i­ty for Mitch McConnell, the top Sen­ate Repub­li­can. He wants it bad. Know­ing this, Democ­rats insist­ed that McConnell bring up three oth­er semi-relat­ed pieces of trade leg­is­la­tion as well.

The first, called Trade Adjust­ment Assis­tance, is meant to help work­ers who find them­selves out of work due to for­eign com­pe­ti­tion. Anoth­er  per­tains to cus­tom and trade enforce­ment, and has pro­vi­sions con­cern­ing cur­ren­cy manip­u­la­tion. The third would set up trade pref­er­ences for nations in sub-Saha­ran Africa.

McConnell refused to bring up the lat­ter two bills, and so the Democ­rats stuck togeth­er and fil­i­bus­tered the fast-track bill.

“The group is con­cerned about the lack of a com­mit­ment to trade enforce­ment, which is specif­i­cal­ly the cus­toms bill,” Wyden explained to reporters, speak­ing for him­self and oth­er pro-fast-track Democ­rats. “Until there is a path to get all four bills passed… we will, cer­tain­ly most of us, have to vote no.”

The White House tried to down­play the failed vote as a “pro­ce­dur­al snafu”.

But Jim Dean of Democ­ra­cy for Amer­i­ca char­ac­ter­ized it much differently.

“Under intense pres­sure from pro­gres­sives, the Sen­ate vot­ed 52 to 45 to block debate on Fast Track leg­is­la­tion that would have for­bid­den Con­gress from mak­ing amend­ments to the TPP,” he wrote in an email to DFA supporters.

“Near­ly every­one expect­ed the White House to win this clo­ture vote com­fort­ably. Now, pro-cor­po­rate admin­is­tra­tion offi­cials and Repub­li­cans are scram­bling, try­ing to fig­ure out what to do next.”

“This vote is more than an amaz­ing but iso­lat­ed vic­to­ry. It’s irrefutable proof that the War­ren wing of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic par­ty can defeat the TPP. Our activism is work­ing. Democ­rats are wak­ing up and real­iz­ing that votes to sup­port a pro-cor­po­rate agen­da over work­ing fam­i­lies will have real, last­ing consequences.”

(Full dis­clo­sure: NPI Pres­i­dent Robert Cruick­shank serves as a senior cam­paign man­ag­er for Democ­ra­cy for Amer­i­ca.)

The roll call from the Pacif­ic North­west broke down exact­ly along par­ty lines:

Vot­ing Aye: Repub­li­cans Mike Crap and Jim Risch (ID), Lisa Murkows­ki and Dan Sul­li­van (AK), Steve Daines (MT)

Vot­ing Nay: Democ­rats Pat­ty Mur­ray and Maria Cantwell (WA), Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley (OR), Jon Tester (MT)

Repub­li­cans Mar­co Rubio and Lind­sey Gra­ham did not par­tic­i­pate in the vote. Demo­c­rat Cory Book­er also did not participate.