Date: May 18, 2007

House Democrats critical of the process that led to the announcement of last week’s free trade agreement template are still waiting for the leadership to allow the detailed discussion on trade they are demanding in the caucus.

At a joint whip and caucus meeting yesterday (May 17), House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and trade subcommittee Chairman Sander Levin (D-MI) provided a brief presentation of the FTA template and provided members with a packet of information on the deal, participating members said.

The information in that packet is “kind of what we had seen before,” Rep. Phil Hare (D-IL) said after the meeting. In addition, there was no opportunity to ask questions, members said.

Hare was among the six members of the Democratic Caucus who last week demanded a caucus meeting to allow a detailed discussion of the FTA template that had been worked out by Rangel and the Bush Administration before deciding how to proceed (Inside U.S. Trade, May 11).

In their letter to Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), these critics pointed out the “enormous political and policy consequences” of trade matters for the caucus. Many Democratic freshmen had campaigned for a significant change from the Bush administration trade policy and the unions most focused on trade are opposed to the new deal, according to the letter.

Since the deal was announced, the Teamsters Union has announced its opposition and the AFL-CIO announced it was withholding judgment. This will allow its member unions to decide what position to take once the legal text of the FTA template is available (see related story).

Hare and Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH) said after the caucus meeting they were still reserving judgment on the FTA template until they know more about it. “We are still trying to figure out what the deal is,” Sutton said after the meeting.

However, Levin said that all Democratic members have a copy of the “basic ingredients” of the deal, and that little additional information could be provided until the exact legal language of the deal has been worked out. USTR is now drafting that legal language.

Levin said he did not know how long it would take to work out that language. “There is a lot to be done before that happens,” he added. Levin also said a lot of work remains to be done on the FTAs before it is possible to set a timetable for congressional consideration.

Hare and Rep. Michael Michaud (D-ME) also said the Democratic leadership has not yet given any indication of when the Peru FTA could come to the floor.

Hare said he hoped the May 22 meeting would provide an opportunity for discussion of a resolution proposed by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA). That resolution would state that Congress should not consider any extension of trade promotion authority unless it is supported by a majority of Democrats.

Hare and Michaud said they would support the resolution, with Hare saying there was a lot of support for the resolution in the caucus.

At the first caucus meeting after the announcement of the template on May 15, members discussed lobbying reform and trade was not raised, sources said. But Emanuel promised a detailed discussion on trade, either at the May 22 regular caucus session or before. But at the May 17 session, members were largely focused on other issues such as the budget, members said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) originally promised a caucus meeting on trade in late March, sources said.