Senate to clear TAA/GSP bill on Thursday, says Reid

“I’ll work with the Republican leader to set up a time that is convenient to do that [vote on passage of the bill],” said Reid on Thursday morning from the Senate floor.

Prior to that vote, however, the Senate will wade through an amendment offered by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) which demands a new government report on harm inflicted on the American economy by failure to pass FTAs, an amendment offered by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to limit eligibility for TAA to workers who are laid off because of an increase in imports from countries with which the United States has an official FTA and an amendment from Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) that would allow the U.S. to sell F16 fighter jets to Taiwan to protect it from a military threat from China.

The Senate will also consider and vote on a procedural amendment offered by Sen. Bob Casey (D-Penn.)

The underlying Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) bill currently pending would renew an expired program that provides for cheaper American manufacturing by establishing tariff-free exports on some manufacturing inputs to the United States from over 120 developing countries.

The fairly noncontroversial legislation’s larger purpose in the upper chamber, however, is to serve as a vehicle for the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), a program which is aimed at helping workers who lose their jobs due to international trade.

Both TAA and GSP are critical components of a greater deal among congressional leaders and the White House to renew three pending trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

President Obama supports the agreements but some Democrats, in particular, have said they will not move forward with the free trade agreements until TAA is renewed. Others like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) outright oppose the agreements.