Republican senators proposed striking a worker aid program from legislation on a free-trade agreement with South Korea as President Barack Obama’s chief trade official said “the ball is now in” their hands.
Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, offered 26 amendments to the trade- deal bill that will be considered by the panel today, on issues ranging from federal funding for abortion to Russia’s entry into the World Trade Organization.
Senators also proposed eliminating Medicaid for early retirees, renewing trade promotion authority through 2015 and encouraging U.S. beef trade with China and Japan. The amendments underscore Republican opposition to linking the free-trade agreements and Trade Adjustment Assistance for workers, a connection that U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said has existed for decades.
Adding the worker aid program to the bill “has done nothing but bollix up the process,” Hatch said today in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “You have some very ticked-off Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee.”
Obama reworked agreements that his predecessor, George W. Bush, made with South Korea, Panama and Colombia to respond to concerns among Democrats about matters such as labor rights. The administration has been pushing to get the deals approved by Congress before a recess in August.
‘Republicans’ Hands’
“The ball is now in the Republicans’ hands,” Kirk said today in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “They have been asking the Obama administration to move these free-trade agreements forward for two years.”
Legislation to implement the three trade bills is covered by fast-track protection, which guarantees that once they are submitted to Congress by the president they can’t be amended and must receive up-or-down votes.
Before the administration submits legislation, congressional panels in the House and Senate conduct “mock markups,” which let lawmakers seek to amend provisions in the bill. The Senate session is scheduled for 3 p.m. today in Washington.
The Trade Adjustment Assistance program augments health and unemployment benefits to workers who lose their jobs because of overseas competition. As part of the stimulus bill in 2009, it was expanded to include service workers such as call-center employees. Those added benefits expired in February.
“One of the ways that we can build bipartisan support, and frankly, answer the fears of the American public is to have a robust trade-adjustment package,” Kirk said. “If you look at the cost of its over 10 years, I think it is a small price to pay.”
