Now In Charge Of Congress, GOP Plans To Give Up Its Own Constitutional Powers To The Obama Administration

Politics

from the say-what-now? dept

As you’ve probably heard, the Republicans decisively took control over Congress in the election on Tuesday, and are now strategizing on exactly what plan they’ll choose to try not to mess things up too badly by the time the 2016 elections come around. The Washington Post has a short segment on the “quick votes” the GOP is planning for January to show that rather than blocking everything, it can actually pass some stuff — including “fast track” legislation on trade agreements:

With the 2016 presidential campaign already looming large, McConnell (Ky.) and Boehner (Ohio) are both eager to shed the party?s image as an unruly collection of obstructionists and far-right ideologues.

The remedy, they have decided: Act quickly to send President Obama bills with bipartisan support to fast-track international trade agreements, repeal an unpopular tax on medical devices and approve the Keystone XL pipeline.

We’ve talked about this “Fast Track” authority for years (it’s also referred to as “Trade Promotion Authority”). The issue is that, under the Constitution, Congress and not the executive branch, has the sole power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations.” The executive branch has always been able to negotiate agreements, but it’s Congress that has the power to regulate. “Fast Track” authority or Trade Promotion Authority is effectively Congress handing that right over to the executive branch, by saying that the only thing it can do when brought a trade agreement is vote up or down on the whole thing, rather than actually look at the details of the agreement and send the USTR back to fix the problematic parts.

You can understand why the USTR and the administration want the fast track to go, because it means they can actually promise things during negotiations that are more difficult to promise without that power. But it does seem very, very odd that a Republican Congress that seems to constantly complain about too much power in the executive branch, seems to have no problem whatsoever abdicating its Constitutional powers to that very same executive branch on major trade agreements that could reshape regulations worldwide.

Part of the problem, of course, is that people have been told that this is about “free trade” agreements — and Republicans claim to be in support of free trade. But that’s wrong. The big agreements, like the TPP and TTIP/TAFTA are not about “free trade” for the most part. Most tariff barriers have been chipped away for years. These agreements are about regulations and locking in certain regulations to limit the sovereignty of various nations to pass their own regulations. It’s just protectionism in a different colored coat, dressed up to look like free trade — complete with a dollop of extra sovereignty for corporations. Thus, it seems very odd that a Republican controlled Congress — one that insists it’s all about the Constitution — has decided that it’s first order of business is to give up one of Congress’ main constitutional powers to an administration controlled by the opposing party.

Filed Under: congress, fast track, fast track authority, gop, republicans, tafta, tpp, trade agreements, trade promotion authority, ttip