Claude Barfield explains the recent fast track battle and rule changes resulting from the Colombia FTA fight:
The Showdown
Tellingly, the planning of the coup against the fast-track process came, not from the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over trade, but rather from the Rules Committee. According to reporters Patrick O’Connor and Martin Kady of The Politico, Rules Committee chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Rep. James McGovern (D-MA) had discussed the option of stripping time requirements from the fast-track process since January. When the administration signaled that it would forward the agreement even without a sign-off by congressional Democratic leaders, Slaughter and McGovern seized the opportunity. On Tuesday, April 8, the president formally sent up the agreement and supporting documents; that same evening, Slaughter and McGovern presented the deadline-stripping plan to Speaker Pelosi, who, after meeting with other members of her leadership team, the next day backed the changes in a larger Democratic caucus. And on Thursday, as noted above, the House Democratic majority rammed through the amendments to House rules, effectively gutting the fast-track process for the Colombia FTA.
The entire episode transpired over a 48-hour period, and it left the White House and pro-FTA business lobbyists stunned and disarmed. In defense of their action, Pelosi and other House Democratic leaders argued that the administration had broken faith with the spirit of the rules by sending the agreement up without gaining the speaker’s consent. The White House, in turn, mounted a furious verbal counterattack. On April 14, President Bush stated that the agreement was “dead” unless Pelosi intervened, and he condemned the Democrats for having “stiffed” a key U.S. ally. Meanwhile, USTR Schwab argued that it was House Democrats who had broken faith on fast track: for more than 16 months, Schwab said, Democrats had refused to give consent to advance the process and had refused to provide the criteria for judging Colombia’s human rights progress.
More at the link.
