Votes for Fast-Track Lacking, Gingrich Says

The House does not have the votes to give President Clinton the authority he wants to negotiate expanded trade treaties, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Sunday.

“If the vote were held tomorrow morning, fast-track would clearly lose,” Gingrich said on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press.”

Gingrich, like a majority of Republicans, supports giving Clinton the the so-called fast-track authority enjoyed by presidents for more than 20 years, to negotiate trade treaties without fear that Congress will later amend them. Fast-track forces Congress to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on trade agreements.

But many Democrats, citing environmental reasons and the loss of American jobs, oppose fast-track and Clinton on Saturday acknowledged in a speech that he had “completely failed” to convince a majority of Americans about the importance of trade to America’s economic development.

The House plans to vote on fast-track authority soon and both sides say that Clinton will have to lobby hard to pick up the support of 70 Democrats needed to pass the measure.

“If he can’t get to about 70, I think, frankly, it’s going to go down,” Gingrich said.

House Democratic leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, the chief spokesman for opponents of fast-track, said he wants a new trade policy that gives “labor, human rights, drug interdiction, environmental concerns as much standing in trade treaties as we now give intellectual property and capital.”

Fast-track authority faces a less difficult road in the Senate, with Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) telling NBC-TV that he had more than the 60 votes needed to cut off debate and bring the measure to a final vote. But he said Clinton was “off to, in my opinion, a slow start on fast-track. He has a lot of work to do.”