Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) released a statement warning against the possibility that a lame-duck session could be used to pass President Obama’s “deeply unpopular 5,554 page Trans-Pacific Partnership.” Sessions wants to eliminate the fast-track authority granted to Obama by Congress earlier this year that is “being used to create this new, binding international union.”
“It seems clear the goal of TPP supporters is to hold the vote when the public will be least able to hold their representatives accountable, because the pact’s boosters know that it is deeply unpopular across all voters,” Sessions stated.
Sessions’ press release comes after a report by The Hill in which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hinted that Obama wouldn’t be able to pass the TPP until after the election in 2016.
Sessions argues:
Pew polling shows Republicans, by the widest margin, believe such deals will reduce wages and eliminate jobs. I am sure the President would like nothing more than to hold the vote on his 5,554 page plan during the lame duck. But our job is not to help the President to bypass voters, or cement his legacy when no one is looking; our job is to uphold the will of voters and protect their jobs, wages and constitution.
Congress under no circumstances should vote on this sweeping international accord in a lame duck post-election session of Congress. We should take it off the fast-track, consider it now under regular constitutional order, and let the American people hold their elected officials and candidates accountable.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership will not only bind America down in a Pacific Union with vast regulatory powers, but it will further enable foreign mercantilism that is sending American jobs and manufacturing wealth overseas. Every American has a right to know whether their representatives support or oppose this deal.
Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning challenged that if there is talk that Obama could only get the TPP through Congress during a lame-duck session, that proves that the trade deal is so bad that Congress wouldn’t be able to pass it before the 2016 election.