House Democrats Stop The TPP - At Least For Now

The graphic above is a feel-good one for those of us opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), but it may be a bit premature. The TPP was stopped on Friday in the House, but it may be taken up again next week.

The Republican leadership thought they had barely enough votes to get the bill passed. They were wrong. They were surprised by the Democrats voting against a provision of the bill that Democrats normally support.

The TPP bill was divided into three parts -- one that provided assistance for workers who lose their jobs because of the TPP, one that gave the president "fast track" authority (to ask Congress for an up or down vote on the finished product - without amendment), and the last to provide for sanctions against countries that try to get around the TPP by doing things like manipulating their currency. The last two provisions passed the House, but cannot go to the president for his signature because the first failed (and the Senate had approved all three).

House GOP leaders knew that a lot of their own party would vote against the first part (assistance to workers losing their jobs), and they were right -- 158 Republicans voted against that (because helping workers is not their thing -- helping corporations is what they do). They had counted on Democrats to make up the difference because helping workers is the part of the bill that Democrats liked.

But the Democrats pulled a fast one. They knew that to stop the TPP they had to defeat at least one provision of the bill -- and they also knew there would be a lot of Republicans voting against assisting workers, so most Democrats joined those Republicans and defeated that provision of the bill(126 for and 302 against). That effectively stopped the TPP, because the bill would then have to go back to the Senate (where it would not pass without the worker assistance provision).

But the TPP is not completely dead yet. Speaker Boehner immediately asked for another vote on the worker assistance provision -- and that vote will be done next week (probably on Tuesday). Will the Democrats vote against their own provision again? Can GOP leaders convince enough Republicans to vote for the worker assistance provision? Those answers are anybody's guess right now -- but if the provision fails again next week, then the TPP is as good as dead.

It's not a victory yet. But it could be next week. We'll just have to keep our fingers crossed.