Bipartisan Agreement: Obama Must Move Korea, Colombia, Panama Trade Pacts Now

Late Editon: Today in Washington, D.C. - March 15, 2011:
The Senate begin consideration of S. 493, a bill reauthorizing the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs.  Yesterday the Senate voted 84-12 to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 493. Also, they   voted 96-0 to confirm James Boasberg to be a district judge for the District of Columbia.

Today U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell introduced an amendment to the pending small business bill that would stop the Environmental Protection Agency’s back-door national energy tax from taking effect.   “Imposing a backdoor national energy tax through the EPA is a strange way to respond to rising gas prices,” McConnell said. “Fourteen million Americans are looking for work. Gas prices are approaching $4 a gallon. And the Obama administration wants unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats to impose new regulations that will destroy even more jobs – and drive gas prices even higher.”

The AP reported yesterday, “Senate Republicans on Monday raised the stakes in their showdown with President Barack Obama over trade policy, saying they will block the confirmation of a new Commerce secretary until the administration submits to Congress three pending free trade agreements.

“The administration says it is ready to submit the trade agreement with South Korea to Congress for ratification, but says it needs a little more time for the other two, with Colombia and Panama. Republicans in both the House and Senate have said that is unacceptable, and they would not act on the South Korea deal unless all three pacts are submitted as a package.

“In the latest move Monday, 44 Senate Republicans sent Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., a letter initiated by Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio saying that until the president submits all three agreements ‘we will use all the tools at our disposal to force action, including withholding support for any nominee for Commerce secretary and any trade-related nominees.’”

Announcing the letter yesterday Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “[T]he easiest way -- and the quickest way -- to create new jobs for Americans here in America would be to finally ratify the three trade agreements negotiated by the previous administration that have been sitting there dormant for the entire Obama administration. The president, to his credit, says he's in favor of doing all three agreements. What we have been perplexed by is the lack of willingness to initiate the process. Only Korea appears to be imminent. We believe that Korea, Panama, and Colombia all should be sent up forthwith, as rapidly as possible.”

Even key Democrat senators are saying it’s time for President Obama to move on all three trade agreements. As The Wall Street Journal editors pointed out yesterday, “The pressure on the White House to drop its passive-aggressive opposition to the Colombia and Panama free trade agreements is now officially bipartisan. That news came last week when Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus announced that ‘The time is here. The time is now. In fact, the time has passed to ratify the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. It's long passed. We're losing market share hand over fist.’” At the same hearing, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) said, “I support the Colombia Free Trade Act. … This is good for our country and it's certainly good for my state because we have a great deal of trade both ways with Colombia.”And Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) said, “I support moving forward with trade agreements with Korea, Colombia and Panama … The time to act is now.”

The Washington Post also made the case for moving all three deals in an editorial yesterday: “With so much support for the agreements in both parties, why is the administration asking for more time? The substantive issues that the president has raised - Colombia's purported indifference to labor rights, Panama's status as a tax haven - were never as serious as he contended, and are well on their way to resolution. No one even tries to deny the economic benefits to American companies and workers of the two pacts, especially the one to open the much larger Colombian market. . . . Everyone needs to focus less on the political tit for tat and more on the policy case for getting these deals done as soon as possible, which is clear and strong. ‘It is time to identify the specific steps Colombia and Panama must take to move forward,’ Mr. Baucus said Wednesday, ‘so we can finally approve our free-trade agreements with these countries, increase U.S. exports and create jobs here at home.’ From a Democrat, that can hardly be considered unfriendly advice, and Mr. Obama would be wise to take it.”

The AP noted, “Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, said his fear was that the administration would ‘let these two agreements wither on the vine,’ adding ‘we will not allow that to happen.’ He said that without completion of the agreements, $11 billion worth of U.S. exports to South Korea, $3 billion to Colombia and $1 billion to Panama would gradually be ceded to other countries.”  As the letter from Senate Republicans said, “Any further delay of these agreements is unnecessary and inexcusable.”

RedCounty is reporting that “billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded Obamacare slush money will be among the programs targeted” soon as part of the new House majority’s “broad assault on wasteful mandatory spending,,.”  That effort “began last week with passage of two bills saving taxpayers as much as $9 billion,” including one beginning the process of shutting down the TARP bailout program.

“‘As the first major act of the new majority, House Republicans voted en masse to repeal Obamacare in its entirety, via H.R. 2,’ said the source.  ‘If the Senate won't pass H.R. 2, then Republicans in the House will repeal ObamaCare chunk by chunk, including these wasteful mandatory spending slush funds.’  Legislation to eliminate the Obamacare slush funds is expected on the floor ‘soon,’ the source reports.

“A March 7 internal memorandum by House Energy & Commerce Committee Republicans details some of the Obamacare slush funds that could be targeted.  The slush funds include billions of dollars in mandatory spending accounts that were tucked into the final health care legislation by the Democratic-controlled Congress last year.  One such fund, for example, ‘was designed to provide the Secretary [of Health & Human Services] funds to spend at her discretion above whatever spending amount Congress appropriates,’ the memo notes.  ‘These mandatory spending slush funds were set up by the authors of ObamaCare to stay on the books automatically, year after year, with little or no oversight,’ the source notes.  ‘These accounts are outrageous, and they need to go.’”

The City and School operations in Washington, D.C. fall under the oversight and funding by Congress. The Washington Post is reporting that Speaker Boehner "has put his name and new-found clout behind a pair of efforts to give poor students a chance to attend private schools." "The speaker’s actions renew a fight he lost two years ago, when opponents killed a voucher program over concerns that it robbed resources from public schools. On Monday, after President Obama renewed his push for education reform at an Arlington County middle school, House Republicans linked the president’s success on his goals to his willingness to embrace Boehner’s."

House oversight issues are heating up. The WPO is also reporting that "the Republican chairman of the House Ethics Committee has accused his Democratic predecessor of violating House rules and acting without cause in forcing two staff lawyers to take paid leave amid a contentious committee probe of alleged misconduct by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) last year. Rep. Jo Bonner (R-AL), who moved into the chairmanship in January, made that claim about former chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) in a letter he sent early this month to the two lawyers, who played lead roles in the Waters probe. They were idled just as Waters was to be tried by the committee over her actions involving a bank in which her husband had a financial interest. . . . No decision has been announced by the committee on whether to restart the Waters probe. . . .”

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