• The Senate on Wednesday approved fast-track authority for President Obama, delivering a significant second-term victory that could help the White House finish negotiations on a sweeping pact with 11 other Pacific Rim nations.
The action caps a months-long battle between congressional Democrats and Obama, who relied on GOP leaders to move forward with his agenda.
The fight included a number of twists and turns, and a final outcome with some clear-cut winners and losers.
WINNERS
President Obama
The president mounted a full-court press to win fast-track, or trade promotion authority, and he wasn’t afraid to throw an elbow at his fellow Democrats to win.
He and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman aggressively courted Democrats and fought back at opponents in their own party who accused Obama of turning his back on working Americans.
The president had several low points during the battle, most notably when he visited Capitol Hill to ask House Democrats to back a workers assistance program, only to see them vote against it hours later in a repudiation of his position.
While the White House chalked the defeat down as a “procedural snafu,” it put his agenda in limbo and forced the pro-trade crowd to change its legislative strategy.
It proved victorious, and less then two weeks after a humiliation, Obama stood triumphant.
Now he faces another challenge: finishing talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and winning its approval from Congress.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
McConnell (R-Ky.) took over the Senate hoping to show Republicans could govern.
With fast-track, he has another feather in his cap.
McConnell has now seen bipartisan legislation on Iran, Medicare and trade move through his chamber in the last few months.
And on the fast-track bill, he and other senators — notably Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the top Democrat on the panel — were able to save the legislation after its fate was put into some doubt by the House.
Rep. Paul Ryan
A little more than six months into his tenure as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, Ryan has his first legislative victory.
The Wisconsin Republican worked closely with his Senate counterparts to craft the trade measure, and he and his office were relentless in promoting it.
The 2012 vice presidential candidate’s
influence and stature with his conference was also critical in winning support from rank-and-file Republicans reluctant to hand over any power to the White House.
Speaker John Boehner
Boehner (R-Ohio) also has a significant legislative victory in fast-track’s passage, and he worked hard to win a tough vote in the House.
He and his GOP leadership team had some hiccups. They nearly lost a House rule vote that could have torpedoed the measure; the rule only passed with the support of eight Democrats.
Their strategy of holding separate votes on fast-track and Trade Adjustment Assistance, but needing both votes to succeed, also was a problem.
But in the end, Boehner’s bill passed. In fact, the House voted twice to approve fast-track.
Business groups
The Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable and the National Association of Manufacturers were among hundreds of pro-trade business groups that spent millions on advertising to build support within both parties.
In the end, their members moved one step closer to a big trade deal that could open 11 countries, many in Asia, to increased U.S. trade and investment.
LOSERS
Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Warren (D-Mass.) was the face of opposition to fast-track in the Senate, and she lost.
She and Obama, whose administration she once served, battled in personal terms over whether fast-track was good or bad for the country.
Warren argued Obama was negotiating a secret deal, saying the terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership were being kept from the public. After Obama said she was wrong, she doubled down in her criticism.
When the Senate voted in early May against moving forward with fast-track, it appeared that Warren might win.
But a day later, after a series of negative headlines that highlighted the spat between Obama and his party, pro-trade Democrats flipped and voted to advance the legislation.
Warren and her allies never fully recovered.
Labor unions
For a labor movement that has seen better days, the trade battle was do or die, and they lost.
The Senate’s passage of fast-track will be difficult for unions to swallow. It’s the latest in a long line of legislative defeats for labor, which argues that the steady stream of trade deals since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico has shipped U.S. jobs overseas.
Reps. Rosa DeLauro and Sandy Levin
DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Levin (D-Mich.) both ran intense campaigns against fast-track.
Their strategy of getting their members to vote against the workers aid bill in the House to slow down fast-track was a short-term win. In the long run, the White House and GOP leaders simply worked around them and the trade bill passed.
MIXED
Rep. Nancy Pelosi
The House Democratic leader had the toughest job in Washington on trade.
Her caucus hated fast-track, but no one in Washington has been a stronger ally to Obama than Pelosi.
She did not want to be personally responsible for killing his trade agenda. But she also didn’t want to be on the wrong side of her caucus.
For weeks, no one was sure exactly what Pelosi would do.
Then, in a meandering floor speech that was must-watch TV in Washington, Pelosi announced she would side with her members and oppose the workers assistance bill in an effort to slow down fast-track.
It was a stunning, dramatic break with Obama, who had just personally visited Pelosi and her colleagues to plead that they support the workers aid bill.
Still, in the end, Pelosi (D-Calif.) seems to have threaded the political needle.
She gave Democrats room to fight over the matter among themselves but sided with her caucus when push came to shove. That earned her public praise from her members.
She also clearly did what she could to help Obama by holding a series of meetings with Boehner meant to pave the way for the workers aid bill’s passage. While those efforts were unsuccessful, they sent an important signal to the White House.
Hillary Clinton
Clinton was in a position almost as difficult as Pelosi’s.
She backed the Trans-Pacific Partnership as Obama’s secretary of State, and her husband, Bill Clinton, was president when NAFTA was approved.
Yet she could not afford to publicly back fast-track or the TPP as the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Clinton hedged, even as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Clinton’s challenger from the left, pressured her to take a position.
Days before the Senate vote, she said she “probably” would not vote for fast-track if she was a senator, but only because she was not certain the workers aid bill would also be passed.
Clinton’s mixed messages may not have made anyone happy. But she didn’t want to take a clear stand, and in the end, she didn’t have to.
And if Clinton succeeds in taking the White House in 2016, she’ll be able to enjoy those fast-track powers Obama worked so hard to gain, since they last until 2021.