WASHINGTON (AP) - Union-backed Democrats launched a last-ditch effort Thursday to scuttle President Barack Obama's trade agenda by sacrificing a favored program of their own that retrains workers displaced by international trade.
The retraining program was linked to the Democrats' real target: legislation to help Obama advance multi-nation trade agreements. In hopes of bringing down the whole package, which they say imperils jobs at home, numerous House Democrats said they would vote Friday against the retraining measure.
House Republicans were in the odd position of supporting Obama's bid for "fast-track" trade-negotiating authority, while the White House struggled to come up with enough Democratic votes to win passage.
In a closed meeting in the Capitol, top White House officials implored Democrats not to deny Obama the trade authority. Such a vote, they said, would block needed trade expansion for the nation and sink a major priority of the Democratic president.
The sometimes emotional exchanges illustrated the high stakes and intense feelings surrounding Obama's bid for "fast track" trade-negotiating authority. Such authority, which previous presidents have enjoyed, would let Obama present Congress with proposed trade agreements it could ratify or reject but not change.
Obama hopes to advance the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership and other trade proposals that have been negotiated for years.
Unions vehemently oppose such deals, saying they ship U.S. jobs abroad.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka urged House Democrats to do something once unthinkable - reject the retraining program, known as Trade Adjustment Authority, or TAA - as the best means to kill fast track. Those attending the meeting said Trumka told Democrats he would pray for those who oppose the unions' position.
Some of the highest-ranking Democrats are with Trumka, suggesting Friday's votes could be close and dramatic.
Fast track and the jobs program "are linked, so if TAA doesn't pass, it puts a hold on both," said Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee. "I'm urging people to vote against it."
The strategy could scuttle the whole package, because many Republicans have long records of opposing the jobs retraining program, which they consider wasteful.
The biggest questions hanging over the House late Thursday were: How many of the 188 Democrats will vote against TAA because it's the best way to kill fast track? And how many of the 246 Republicans might hold their noses and vote for the jobs program in a bid to save fast track?
Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., said of the Democrats: "It's in their hands, they have to pass TAA. We can only deliver a certain number of votes for TAA. So we'll see. We're calling their bluff. If they want to bring it down, then it's going to be a crushing blow to their president."
If the jobs program survives a first vote, the House will vote on fast track. Presumably the politics would be reversed, with many Republicans and as few as 20 Democrats voting for the legislation.
The Senate linked the two measures when it passed the trade package after a long, heated debate earlier this year. Pro-trade lawmakers are desperate not to change the Senate bill in any way, because that would send it back to that chamber, giving opponents multiple chances to try again.