UPDATE: JUNE 18.  Today the House of Representatives approved a "stand alone" Fast Track Authority bill on a vote of 218-208. Democrats who voted in favor again included Rep. Blumenauer, Bonamici and Schrader.

One Win but battle not over.

On Friday, President Obama's corporate driven trade agenda was dealt a serious blow in large part due to the huge grassroots insurgence of phone calls, emails, faxes, meetings, rallies and general rabble-rousing done by all of us and our allies in the labor, environmental, consumer, farmers, internet users, public health, LGBTA and other peoples' movements. Those movements have really stepped up to the plate to say No to Fast Track, the TPP and other corporate trade agreements.

But the fight will continue and so we must be ready ON MONDAY to swing back into action.

What happened on Friday is that the corporatists' plan fell apart. The Senate had passed a combined Fast Track/Trade Adjustment Assistance bill (62-37) last month. But the House split it apart, resulting in two votes, one on Fast Track and one on Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA). The House voted in favor of Fast Track Authority (219-211, with 28 Democrats voting with the Republicans) but soundly defeated TAA (126-302). Democrats, who typically support TAA, voted against it because of various modifications made to it in order to attract conservative Republican votes and most importantly, because it had to pass for Fast Track to move forward. Not wanted Fast Track to move, Democrats in large number voted No. Note, however, that Oregon Representatives Blumenauer, Bonamici and Schrader, all Democrats, voted wrong on both these pieces of legislation, voting to move Fast Track forward.

Because of differences between the House approved Fast Track and the Senate version, it must either go to the Senate for their approval or the House must try to pass the TAA in another vote on Monday or Tuesday. Speaker Boehner has called for the House to reconsider during that time frame. If the Speaker does not think that a vote would produce the desired result, he might delay the vote. For us, the more delay the better. Or the Fast Track bill could be sent to the Senate as is, without the TAA, for their approval.

So our job now is to CALL, CALL, EMAIL, and CALL more and more often.

All our Representative must hear that we realize they are all up for reelection next year. How they vote on this issue will determine how you vote in the primary elections and in the general election in November.

Additional details on what has happened.

On Friday, Congress voted against the grand bargain the President and pro-corporate rule members of Congress had designed. Here is what that grand bargain looked like.

The Senate last month voted in favor of Fast Track Authority with a combination of primarily Republican votes plus votes from a few Democrats like ranking minority member of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon. That Fast Track legislation included both Fast Track and Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) in a single bill. TAA gives workers displaced as a result of these trade agreements training assistance for new jobs, which, if they materialize, generally pay a lot less than the jobs lost. But, in order to attract conservative Republican votes, funding of the costs for TAA was put on the backs of senior citizens by requiring cuts of $700 million to Medicare. In addition, the TAA proposal also removed public-sector workers from the program and didn't provide enough funds to do a adequate job.

Since then the President and his cabinet have been meeting with and twisting arms to get House members to vote Yes. But a deal needed to be worked out. The deal involved breaking the Senate approved Fast Track bill into two bills – one bill with Fast Track and the second one with the TAA. Why? Because a lot of conservative Republicans would not vote for a combined bill due to their opposition to the “wasteful and inefficient TAA” which they see as a give away to get labor support. Breaking into two pieces was the ploy to get them to vote Yes on Fast Track. The other source of opposition for them also was that it would give the President too much executive power.

However, at least in part because of the Senate approved TAA with the Medicare cuts, many more House Democrats would not vote for it and many Republicans also jumped ship, not wanting to be charged in the upcoming 2016 election with cutting benefits from senior citizens. So that which was enacted in the Senate in order to attract Republican votes drove those votes away in the House.

Now on Monday or Tuesday, House Speaker has said that a new vote on TAA will happen.

So your calls are needed now to every House member with the clear message that you don't want the President to have FAST TRACK AUTHORITY.

And Tweet your friends and send Facebook messages. Samples messages here.

Rep Earl Blumenauer
Washington D.C.
1111 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
T: (202) 225-4811
F: (202) 225-8941

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
Washington, D.C. Office
439 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-0855
Fax: (202) 225-9497

Rep Kurt Schrader
Washington, DC Office
2431 Rayburn House Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20515
T (202) 225-5711
F (202) 225-5699