GOP boycotts mock markup of trade deals

Senate Republicans boycotted a mock markup of three U.S. trade deals Thursday, forcing Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to postpone action on the long-awaited agreements. 

Baucus said that Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the ranking member on Finance, informed him that no Republicans would attend the session. 

{mosads}”Instead of participating in a fair and open forum to discuss these agreements, some members of this committee chose to block the scheduled markup,” Baucus said. 

A markup requires a quorum, which requires the presence of at least one member of each party. 

Republicans on the committee said the boycott was staged to protest the manner in which Democrats were trying to “ram-through” the legislation.

“We are not going to put up with being jammed,” Hatch said. “We have rights too, in the minority, and they have been invoked.”

Hatch complained that the panel would have little time to deal with nearly 100 amendments if the hearing were to start at 3 p.m. before a long weekend. 

“We do not take this action lightly,” Hatch said. “We have a great deal of respect for this committee … but the process leading up has been so noxious that we cannot attend it in good faith and pretend everything is fine and dandy.”

“We would be doing a disservice to our constituents and our oaths,” he added.

Baucus said committee members were given 48 hours’ notice of the markup, under the panel’s rules, following an agreement announced Tuesday between the White House and congressional negotiators to approve expanded Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) with the Korea, Colombia and Panama trade pacts.

“The bigger disappointment is that this boycott means that the opportunity to pass important job creation legislation is now delayed,” Baucus said. 

Hatch suggested Republicans would have been willing to waive the 48-hour notice rule and move forward with the markup at 10 a.m. Thursday, giving the panel more time to deal with the amendments. 

Republicans oppose including the expanded TAA program with the Korean trade deal. 

In a letter sent earlier Thursday to President Obama, Republicans on the Finance committee said that all three agreements and TAA should be considered separately and on their own merit. 

{mosads}”We are concerned about last minute attempts to include provisions expanding TAA in the South Korea implementing bill,” they wrote. “We believe such actions are beyond the scope of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) authority and unduly infringe on the rights of members of the Senate to carefully weigh and debate the merits of TAA.”

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said Republicans will continue to demand that the TAA program “stand-alone,” separate from the agreements with Korea, Panama and Colombia.

“It’s a shame that these free trade agreement are being held hostage in order to get more spending,” Thune said. “The free trade agreements are being hijacked to get spending the administration wants at a time we ought to bed reducing spending.”

The senators expressed concern that including TAA in the deal could negate “fast-track” authority, which guarantees that once the president submits the trade deals to Congress, they can’t be amended and must receive up-or-down votes.

Sen. Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) made clear Thursday that the Senate GOP leadership is willing to make a deal on the expanded TAA program if Obama seeks renewal of the fast-track authority, which expired in 2007. It is unlikely that any more trade deals will be signed until the president has that power. 

The White House has said that TAA must go through Congress with the trade deals.

Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), another Democrat on the panel, said he was “dumbfounded” by the Republican protest.

He said Republicans have been “attacking the administration for an imaginary delay and dawdling about getting these very trade packages passed.”

“They’ve been screaming about getting these trade agreements done and now we can’t do it,” he said.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk expressed disappointment as well.

“Today the agreements were there and Senate Finance Committee Republicans were not,” he said in a statement. “Americans need their leaders at work — in their seats, eyes on the ball, pushing every day to enact policies that create jobs here at home, advance this country’s economic recovery, and help our working families.”

Last updated at 4:19 p.m.