Why Obama Is Wrong and Warren Is Right on Trade Bill Quarrel

[Purveyor]

Elizabeth Warren has warned leery Democrats that a fast-track trade bill could undo U.S. laws such as the Dodd-Frank banking regulations later. A number of constitutional scholars and other legal experts say she’s right.

May 15, 2015 4:43 PM ED

In her quarrel with President Barack Obama over trade legislation, Elizabeth Warren has got the law on her side.

The Massachusetts senator has warned fellow Democrats that a fast-track trade bill now in Congress could undo U.S. laws such as the Dodd-Frank banking regulations later. A number of constitutional scholars and other legal experts say she’s right.

The reason: An arcane trade-bill provision that would make it easier for a future president and Congress to undercut existing statutes, even ones with little to do with trade.

The risk to Dodd-Frank is “real and meaningful and worth worrying about,” said Michael Barr, Obama’s former assistant Treasury secretary for financial institutions and an architect of the financial law. Barr said a hostile president might weaken the law through other means, such as a legislative assault or regulatory maneuvers.

The fight pits two of the most popular Democrats in the country against one another. Obama’s support of fast-track trade authority and regional free-trade deals under negotiation with Pacific Rim and European nations places him sharply at odds with most of his party.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-05-15/warren-claim-that-trade-bill-could-undermine-dodd-frank-is-right?cmpid=BBD051815%22

[sorechasm]

1. Could include? The article is mistaken. It should state 'WILL include provisions to undercut...'

Warren says she’s concerned that Republicans could include provisions in a future trade deal undercutting Dodd-Frank. They could then pass it with a simple majority in the U.S. Senate because the fast-track bill would prevent Democrats from blocking the legislation through a filibuster. Normally, it takes 60 votes to break a filibuster.

Republicans would never miss such an opportunity.

[sorechasm]

2. It's not as if our policy makers have ever been 'irresponsible' in the past. Have they?

I don’t think policy makers are that irresponsible,” said William Krist, a trade official in President Ronald Reagan’s administration and now a senior scholar at the Wilson Center, a congressionally chartered research institute in Washington.

Meanwhile...

European officials and financial industry executives are itching to loosen key requirements the Dodd-Frank law established to reduce the threat of another financial collapse, Barr said. Their targets include regulations on derivatives trading by bank affiliates outside the U.S.; a ban on proprietary trading, named after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker; and the rules on capital requirements, he said.