White House: If trade passes, no problem with all-GOP support

The Obama administration said Friday it is not concerned with securing the votes of House Democrats on a bill giving the president greater authority to negotiate trade deals, as long as the bill passes Congress.

“What we seek is a majority in the House,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. “And whether that’s all Republicans, or a bunch of Republicans and a small number of Democrats, is frankly not something we’re particularly concerned about. We just want to see this piece of legislation pass.”

{mosads}In actuality, the president will likely need dozens of Democrats in the House to support the deal, which would limit Congress to a simple yes-or-no vote on a pair of major trade deals the White House is pursuing. That would give Obama greater leverage in the negotiations, where partner countries have expressed concern that Congress could try to alter a deal after terms have been settled.

But the effort has garnered resistance from many Democrats who believe the free trade pacts would help business while hurting American workers. Organized labor has lobbied aggressively against the bill.

At a meeting with House Democrats Thursday night in Philadelphia, Obama conceded to skeptical members that past trade deals were not perfect, according to a Democratic staffer in the room. But he argued that the agreements would be an improvement from the status quo and pledged to get members access to more information about the substance of the agreements.

Earnest sidestepped the question of whether the White House had convinced enough Democrats to back the bill.

“The president wasn’t there to count votes last night; the president was there to have a conversation about his strategy when it comes to these conversations about opening markets for American exports,” Earnest said.

He added that Obama came away with the impression “that he got a fair hearing from the Democrats who were in attendance.”

“I do not anticipate that every single Democrat is going to end up voting for this thing,” he continued. “But I do think that as long as people give the president an opportunity to present the facts and to ask legitimate questions about the details of the agreement, then I think we’re going to have an opportunity to continue to make our case, and I think we’re going to win some support as a result.”