Trade Bill Heads for Showdown : Reagan Vows Veto as Democrats Scramble for Votes

Senate Democrats and President Reagan competed for Republican votes Tuesday as a showdown approached on the embattled trade bill and its controversial provision for advance notice by major employers of plant closings and mass layoffs.

Reagan reaffirmed his intention to veto the measure in its present form, while Democratic leaders tried feverishly to assemble the required 67 votes that would ultimately be needed to override the President’s disapproval and enact the measure into law.

14 Republican Votes Needed

Sen. Alan Cranston of California, who ranks second in the Democratic leadership, said 53 of the Senate’s 54 Democrats would vote for the measure, along with an undetermined number of the 46 Republicans. That would assure that the Senate would pass the legislation and send it to Reagan. A vote is expected today or Thursday.

But Cranston said through a spokesman that it was “touch and go” whether there would be enough votes to overcome a veto--at least two-thirds of all Senators present and voting. Advocates of the bill calculated that they needed 14 Republicans to join with the Democrats to show sufficient strength to override the long-anticipated veto.

The House passed the measure last week by a vote of 312 to 107 and was expected to be able to override a presidential veto.

Reagan objects mainly to provisions requiring advance notice to workers 60 days before a plant shutdown or layoffs affecting more than 500 workers or one-third of a plant’s work force. He argued that it would impede businesses’ ability to compete.

Democrats and other backers of the measure said it would be only fair to give advance warnings to workers threatened with loss of their jobs to enable them to apply for retraining or seek other employment.

Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.), who is managing the trade bill on the Senate floor, appealed to oil-state and farm-state Republicans by reminding them that the trade bill would repeal the so-called windfall profits tax on oil and add new provisions to encourage farm exports.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas, Reagan said he would work hard with congressional leaders for approval of another trade bill this year if the Senate or House sustained his promised veto.

But Senate Democratic leader Robert C. Byrd (W.Va.) challenged the idea that a watered-down version of the bill would be speeded through Congress if this measure is killed by Reagan’s rejection.

“Someone has got the plug in the wrong socket,” Byrd told reporters. “They (the Administration) don’t have it wired here.”

Alaska Provisions

Proponents of the bill suffered a setback when Alaska’s two senators said they would vote against it because it would limit Alaskan oil exports. “This legislation discriminates very violently against my state,” said Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).

The trade bill would limit export of refined oil from a new installation at Valdez, Alaska, to 70,000 barrels a day and 50% of production. The limit would apply statewide and thus put a cap on any additional refineries. Current law forbids export of oil from the Alaskan pipeline.

The only Democrat expected to vote against the bill is Sen. William Proxmire of Wisconsin, who said that he objected to the bill’s relaxation of bans on corrupt practices by American companies operating overseas.