Associated Press
December 6, 2001
By David Espo

WASHINGTON (AP) - In a victory for a wartime White House, the House narrowly approved legislation Thursday giving President Bush stronger authority to negotiate global trade deals.

The vote was 215-214, and came after House Speaker Dennis Hastert made a forceful, last-minute plea for supporting a commander in chief who is leading the worldwide fight against terrorism.

"This Congress will either support our president who is fighting a courageous war on terrorism and redefining American world leadership or we will undercut this president at the worst possible time," said Hastert, R-Ill.

Shot back Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.: "We'll fight on this floor but we'll salute the flag just like anybody else. To infer ... that we're not as patriotic as the next person is wrong."

The vote sent the bill to the Senate, where Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., has said no action is expected before next year.

Bush urged quick action by the Senate to send him a bill he can sign. The trade power, he said in a statement, "will give me the flexibility I need to secure the greatest possible trade opportunities for America's farmers, workers, families and consumers."

Bush telephoned a half-dozen wavering lawmakers or more in the run-up to the vote, and officials offered his written pledge to Democrats endorsing a $20 billion package of aid for victims of the recession.

The legislation would give the president authority to negotiate trade deals, then submit them to Congress on a take-it-or-leave-it basis, no amendments allowed. Recent presidents have had such power, but it expired in 1994. Former President Bill Clinton was unable to persuade the Republican-controlled Congress to renew it.

"No country is going to put their best deals on the line if they think they're going to be changed by the United States Congress," said Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz. "We need to have the confidence in our president to get this job done."

Democrats said the measure failed to guarantee minimal worker and environmental protections in America's trading partners. They also contended that Republicans only belatedly had shown interest in helping workers hurt by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the recession.

"It is an abomination that they would be bringing up all of these ideas for worker relief, as inadequate and poor as they are, in order to buy votes," said House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri. "If they were sincere and genuine about helping workers, they would have done" so long ago.

While Bush made his calls at the White House, Republican leaders sought votes on his behalf. Speaker Dennis Hastert, after meeting one by one with several wavering Republicans Wednesday night, invited a small group of Democrats to convene several hours before the vote.

Several sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that at the session, GOP officials said Bush was prepared to issue a written declaration of support for a package of recession relief, $20 billion or more, that the House leaders had embraced on Wednesday.

Democrats at the session, all of whom have voted for union-opposed trade bills in the past, said they wanted a floor vote on the worker relief package before the trade measure went ahead. Hastert declined, these sources added.

Administration officials worked hard to ease last-minute concerns by lawmakers representing steel, citrus, textile and other interests. Commerce Secretary Don Evans circulated a letter pledging stronger enforcement of existing trade laws and other steps to bolster the domestic textile industry, which has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs in recent years.

Officials also sought to satisfy the concerns of a bloc of Florida lawmakers worried about the impact of Brazilian citrus imports on their state.

The trade debate followed predictable lines.

"America's economy strength depends on an unimpeded ability to compete fairly in international markets," said Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and one of dozens of pro-business Republicans to support the measure.

Union-backed Democrats saying it would harm domestic industries by allowing imports from other nations without appropriate safeguards for workers or the environment.

"The other side of the floor is coming to the floor today to lay the foundation for the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs by more Americans in the immediate future," said Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla.

But the political undertones were different from previous years, when a Democrat sat in the White House.

"I, in fact, opposed granting President Clinton this authority. I did not trust him," said Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla. "But I trust President Bush."

"I don't agree that a vote no weakens the president," countered Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., but rather is a vote to force Republicans into bipartisan discussions.

The legislation Thomas presented Wednesday includes money for an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits, between $8 and $10 billion to help laid off workers keep their health insurance.

As an additional sweetener, he also proposed an expansion of an existing program designed to help workers who lose their jobs as the result of imports, to include workers affected by the terrorist attacks.

That bill passed on a vote of 420-3 before the debate on the trade measure.