Senate

Key Senate Dem mum on options for trade bill

by Jordain Carney - 06/15/15 6:53 PM ET

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on Monday said that he wouldn’t speculate on possible paths for Congress to pass a fast-track trade bill, after House Democrats effectively blocked the proposal late last week.

“I am not speculating on any possible scenarios,” Wyden, the lead Democrat for trade legislation in the Senate, told reporters when asked if the Senate could take up the House’s trade promotion authority (TPA) bill.

{mosads}While the House passed the TPA bill, Democrats blocked a separate measure on trade adjustment assistance (TAA), which would help workers impacted by trade deals, stalling the overall trade package.

House Democrats said blocking the assistance bill, which they normally support, was their best chance to kill the fast-track legislation.

Asked if Democrats could instead try to pass TAA as part of a separate customs bill, Wyden again declined to try to predict what could happen.

“Once you get into the la-la land of speculating on various scenarios it just never stops,” he said.

In the Senate, lawmakers took one vote on a bill that included both TPA and TAA. Wyden said that pro-trade lawmakers “got a very strong vote in the Senate for a sensible package,” adding that “both of these programs are very important.”

The House is expected to vote again this week on TAA, and Wyden said that he was “anxious” to see what the House would do.

Wyden’s remarks to reporters on Monday follow his comments from late last week, when he said Democrats’ decision to buck TAA was “shortsighted.”

Tags Ron Wyden