Obama Fast-Track Trade Agenda Risk Comes From Democrat Sander Levin [View all]
By Laura Litvan - Jan 10, 2014
One of the biggest challenges to President Barack Obama’s trade agenda is a senior House Democrat from Michigan with some of the Capitol’s closest ties to organized labor and his home state’s auto industry.
Representative Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said he’ll lead opposition to a bipartisan measure unveiled yesterday to allow Obama to negotiate trade deals that lawmakers can’t amend. A fast-track method for advancing trade agreements, which the administration wants, is key to winning passage of some of the largest trade agreements in history.
“I don’t support what they’ve proposed,” Levin told reporters, saying he’ll write a rival measure that expands the role of Congress in overseeing trade deals. “It can’t be the same old business as usual in terms of the role of Congress.”
The move by Levin, House Democrats’ leader on trade policy, comes as Obama faces growing opposition from members of his own party who say the trade deals being negotiated could short-change U.S. workers and some industries. Levin’s expertise on trade gives him the ability to pull his way other members who aren’t decided, said Michael Moore, a professor of economics and international affairs at George Washington University.
His stance also risks expanding the intra-party rift over free trade and U.S. jobs as the party seeks to make income inequality an issue in the 2014 midterm election, Moore said.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-10/obama-fast-track-trade-agenda-risk-comes-from-democrat.html
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