Indiana’s two senators took divergent paths in their votes on so-called “fast track” trade authority. Senator Dan Coats, a Republican who announced that he is retiring in 2016, voted to give President Obama the authority to finalize a free trade deal known as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Senator Joe Donnelly, a first-term Democrat, voted…
The so-called “fast track” trade bill has stalled as Republicans failed to clear a 60 vote procedural hurdle necessary to move forward in the United States Senate. The bill, which is opposed by organized labor and liberal groups and supported by the US Chamber of Commerce, would prevent Congress from modifying a free trade deal…
Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch has postponed the introduction of fast-track trade authority legislation until mid-April. Fast track is designed to grease the skids for passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement that is still being negotiated behind closed doors. Postponing the debate on fast track gives opponents another month to build opposition. It gives…
With Congress on the verge of taking up the controversial, corporate-friendly Trans Pacific Partnership, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is demanding that the chief trade representative for the United States turn over the full text of the proposed trade agreement. “It is incomprehensible to me that the leaders of major corporate interests who stand to…
