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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRon Wyden close to deal on 'fast-track' trade legislation
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is near to reaching a deal with Republicans on a "fast-track" trade bill regarded as crucial to later producing congressional agreement on a sweeping Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact with 12 Pacific Rim nations.
"We are close to finding common ground," Wyden said Thursday morning in a Senate Finance Committee hearing as the panel's chairman, Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah, also delivered an upbeat assessment of his long negotiations with the Oregon Democrat. Wyden indicated there could be a deal as early as Thursday afternoon.
Wyden, who has generally been a supporter of free-trade pacts, has been heavily lobbied by President Barack Obama and congressional Republican leaders to lend his support to the fast-track bill, formally known as Trade Promotion Authority.
At the same time, critics of the trade proposals have been urging Wyden to reject the agreement and warn that he could face political consequences in his 2016 re-election campaign if he supports either fast track or the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
One group towed a 30-foot blimp around to Wyden's town halls in Oregon attacking the partnership, and free-trade critics have also picketed his home in Portland as well as his wife's town house in New York City. One liberal group, Democracy for America, has been trying to drum up primary opposition to Wyden, who has generally been regarded as politically secure in Oregon.
http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2015/04/ron_wyden_close_to_deal_on_fas.html
The "liberal Democrat" Wyden.
Liberal & Democrat no longer have anything to do with labor, apparently.

99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)He apparently thinks his liberal Oregon supporters will forget this, and
still vote for him again.
Not so with this Lib-Oregonian.
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)CanonRay
(13,695 posts)to tell him he's making a big mistake and abandoning his base.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)maybe I'll FB him too.
joshcryer
(62,237 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)Up the street in another state, I know, but money travels, especially these days.
99Forever
(14,524 posts)Sell-outs gotta go.
cascadiance
(19,537 posts)He needs to pay for this sell out, and be forced to cash in on his "revolving door" retirement gig earlier so that this sort of thing no longer gets put in to our legislation.
Call DeFazio's office now, especially if you are an Oregonian like I am and encourage him to run! And if you have some good ideas for people to run in his place against Art Robinson or his kid next election, make sure to make them so that he can feel more comfortable running for the Senate then too!
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)I have even made a small donation in the past.
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)The deal was cut (your headline "close to" is already out of date). As you'd expect of a compromise, it has a lot of bad points, but at least it's somewhat better than what the unholy Obama/Boehner alliance was pushing.
In any such situation, you have to think about your batna -- best alternative to negotiated agreement. If Wyden didn't agree to this, there was presumably at least some danger that the original horrible proposal, backed by the top leaders of both parties, would be approved.
Deciding whether Wyden made the right decision would entail assessing the prospects for the Obama administration's version, and also assessing whether there was negotiating room to cut a deal that was better than the one Wyden got. I don't know enough about the specifics to make those calls.
Based on Wyden's record, I have confidence that, if it were completely up to him, there wouldn't be any kind of fast track. He recognized, though, that it's not completely up to him.
My bottom line is not to blame Wyden but to blame Obama. He's the one who put Wyden in this situation in the first place. I don't regret voting for Obama twice but this goes a long way toward sapping my enthusiasm.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)aspirant
(3,533 posts)This is great. They did it at FCC'S Wheeler's home and look at the results.
The wonderful thing is you only need a handful of protestors to make the impact.
When they know we know where they live, the wheels start turning. It's time to play hardball against this TPP because it will destroy this country,
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)They will probably compromise that a transnational can ignore your local government, but not dissolve it. The BOG will declare this a major ass kicking of the republicans by the president, another example of his sage demeanor handily winning the day. "Major concessions on TPP" will be added to THE LIST.
News is so predictable these days
LWolf
(46,179 posts)many of his own constituents in Oregon to say no to fast tracking the TPP. I'm one of those. In response, he keeps emailing me things about how hard he's working to fast-track the TPP the right way.
His most recent this week:
This week, Congress is taking the most definitive steps yet towards approving Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), or what you might have heard referred to as fast-track authority.
Its important because it will determine how President Obama and future Presidents negotiate an important trade agreement the Trans-Pacific Partnership as well as future trade deals.
I know that trade is always controversial, but I can report to you that I have successfully fought to include critical new protections as part of the TPA.
This new TPA framework means that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will represent a real opportunity for workers in Oregon and around the country. We know that tens of thousands of small businesses depend on exports to succeed.
Foreign companies have a much easier time selling goods here than Oregon businesses do selling their goods overseas. That needs to change, and Ive fought to ensure the TPA will take us there.
But we didnt stop there. I fought to level the playing field between American businesses and global competitors, so that everyone involved upholds our progressive values and basic American principles.
To that end, I helped secure critical protections for labor rights, the environment, and fundamental human rights as part of the TPA. We can demand a trade deal that protects our values in a measurable and enforceable way, rather than merely paying lip service to them.
This TPA instructs the President that human rights are a core negotiating objective of our trade agreements for the first time in history.
It requires our trading partners to adopt and maintain international labor standards, raising the bar for workers around the world.
Trade deals we make will insist that other nations live up to international environmental agreements, attacking overfishing, illegal logging and other threats to the planet.
Defending and expanding a free and open internet becomes central to our trade policy ensuring that we dont allow repressive regimes to break up the internet into country-sized pieces, and rejects policies like those found in PIPA and SOPA.
And finally, this TPA requires that no trade agreement can override U.S. law without congressional approval, and that trade agreements are made available to the public for 60 days before the President signs it a level of transparency that weve never had before.
On balance this agreement represents trade done right for workers and businesses here in Oregon and all across America.
Ron Wyden
He's not listening, at least, not to me.
cascadiance
(19,537 posts)Check the language of this state platform resolution passed back then!
http://www.dpo.org/party/business/resolutions/2013-060
NOW, THEREFORE, THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF OREGON RESOLVES AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Our Senators should insist that the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership be made public and subject to full discussion and modification by the Senate before this treaty is voted on by Congress.
Section 2. Our Senators should oppose reinstatement or exercise of Fast Track Authority by the president that circumvents the ability of the Senate to carefully consider the TPP and any future free trade agreements.
Section 3. Our Senators should oppose any international trade agreement that would undermine American manufacturing by encouraging production to move to low-wage countries with weak labor and environmental standards.
...
Wyden should know that Democrats here who are being asked to reelect him in 2016 OPPOSE this POS. What he should be doing is challenging the president and saying that he can't get reelected if he's being asked to go against his party's interests to pass something that Obama is also working against his party's interests for unexplained reasons.
LWolf
(46,179 posts)Apparently, on this issue, he doesn't care.