House panel puts off vote on trade issue

WASHINGTON -- A House committee on Friday put off voting on a critical trade issue amid charges from Democrats that the bill threatened the bipartisan spirit Congress has tried to maintain since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, opened a committee meeting by announcing he was postponing until next Tuesday a vote on legislation giving the president enhanced powers to negotiate new international trade agreements.

That "fast track" or trade promotion authority is the top trade priority of the administration this year as it prepares for the final stages of negotiations on a Western Hemisphere free trade zone and a new round of World Trade Organization talks. Under fast track, Congress can approve or reject but cannot amend a trade agreement negotiated by the president.

Expired in 1994

Trade promotion authority has not been granted by Congress since it last expired in 1994, and many Democrats object to renewing that authority without provisions that trade agreements must protect worker and environmental rights.

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, asked about the delay, said bipartisan backing was essential to getting a fast track bill through Congress. "The timing is a matter for Congress to decide," he said. "The important thing is that the legislation proceed and get passed by the Congress so that the president can sign it into law."

Thomas, working mainly with three Democratic moderates, on Wednesday introduced a bill that he said took steps to answer the Democratic concerns. He said it was his intention to take it up in the committee Friday and move it to the House floor next week.

However, top Democrats on the panel, including Reps. Charlie Rangel of New York and Sander Levin of Michigan, said the Thomas bill didn't go far enough and introduced their own bill. Both sides said they had been given little chance to review the positions of the other.

'Shatters new spirit'

The Thomas bill, Levin said in a statement prepared for Friday's meeting, "shatters the new spirit of true bipartisanship proclaimed by the president and the leadership of this Congress."

Thomas, in announcing the vote delay, said he was "concerned about the manner in which this committee has functioned." He said the two sides had become preoccupied with the process rather than the product and "the American people deserve substantive debate" on the trade issue.

Rangel, the ranking Democrat on the committee, thanked Thomas for his decision, saying "you have denied me the opportunity to read" what he said was a "very painful statement."

The administration has strongly urged Congress to move quickly on trade promotion authority, saying that expanding world trade is key to the economic health of both the United States and its trading partners. Business groups are also campaigning hard for the legislation, while labor, environmental and consumer groups are trying to defeat it.

House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri on Thursday said the Thomas bill was "not serious" on the issues important to Democrats and criticized any attempt to move it quickly to a vote. "I don't think that trade promotion authority or fast track is at the top of anybody's list as what we need to do right now to address the problems from Sept. 11."