Industry News

Obama Plugs Passage of TPA in State of the Union

January 29, 2014


During last night’s State of the Union, President Obama promoted bipartisan passage of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), saying “we need to work together on tools like bipartisan [TPA] to protect our workers, protect our environments and open new markets to new goods stamped “Made in the USA.”   

On January 9, 2014, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT), Ranking member Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) introduced the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities Act of 2014 in both Houses, and the bills are currently waiting in their respective committees.  The bipartisan legislation received instant support from the White House and United State Trade Representative (USTR), but has failed to gain traction with Democrats in the House.  In fact, Sander Levin (D-MI), the senior Democrat on House Ways and Means, released a statement opposing his colleagues' bill, stating their effort had “fallen far short of adequately replacing the failed 2002 TPA model.”

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