The Senate voted tonight on TPP and it turned out better than some had expected:
“I'm absolutely happy, because no country should get in with that designation,” [Sherrod] Brown said. “I'll be working with [the House]. We had some victories here that surprised people. Everybody thought the Senate would be so easy to get it through and they were surprised that it isn't. I think they got more trouble in the House.”
Read the
HuffPost article - some intrigue with tonight's vote that could make voting for TPP in its current form a very, very tough vote:
But the most controversial provision of the final Senate bill is opposed not by the GOP, but by Obama himself.
That measure would bar governments considered to be complicit in human trafficking from receiving the economic benefits of a fast-tracked trade deal. Menendez, the author of the provision, has described it as a human rights protection that will prevent U.S. workers from competing with modern-day slave labor. The administration has pushed against the provision, saying it would prevent Malaysia from participating in the deal, and eliminate incentives for the country to upgrade its human trafficking enforcement. Human rights advocates strongly support the language that passed the Senate on Friday.
I am pretty sure legislators don't want to have to sign a bill that pits their constituents against slave labor in Malaysia. I'm wondering how that conversation might go down at a town hall meeting - not so good, is my guess.