Senate Defies Bush Team With Trade-Authority Vote

Defying the Bush administration and business lobbyists, the Senate approved a proposal Tuesday that could derail legislation to expand presidential power to negotiate international trade deals.

With their vote, the lawmakers may have jeopardized a trade bill that only last week had seemed likely to become law.

The amendment would change the central provisions of the trade bill, a major priority for the administration. The measure, known as trade promotion authority, would let the president negotiate trade pacts and present them to Congress for approval on an up-or-down vote, with no changes allowed.

The amendment, however, would allow Congress to alter portions of trade deals if lawmakers believed the pacts would weaken “anti-dumping” statutes and other laws designed to protect U.S. industries from imports.

In effect, holding the power to cast such votes would give Congress a seat at the table when trade deals are negotiated. Critics of the amendment say that would undermine the next big round of global trade talks. To win support of other countries for these negotiations, the United States agreed last year at Doha, Qatar, to consider possible changes in its trade laws.

“Make no mistake about it: The amendment nullifies trade promotion authority,” said Calman J. Cohen, president of the Emergency Committee for American Trade.

The Senate’s refusal to bend on the amendment reflects political and institutional realities.

Politically, support in Congress runs deep for trade laws that protect U.S. industries perceived as vulnerable to foreign imports. The Bush administration itself used such laws this year to raise tariffs on imported steel and lumber.

Lawmakers would like to add other products to the list. Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho), a co-author of the amendment who is generally a staunch Bush supporter, said he was worried about foreign competition hurting semiconductor production in his state. Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.), the other co-author, is seeking to guard Minnesota farmers from cheap Canadian wheat and corn.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), with an eye on the lumber, shoe and textile industries in her state, supported the amendment despite strong administration appeals to vote against it.

“I have been very heavily lobbied on this issue,” Collins said. But she added: “I have not heard anything from the administration that has changed my mind.”

Institutionally, the vote showed the Senate’s reluctance to cede power to the executive branch. The Constitution gives Congress explicit authority to regulate foreign trade.

The Senate approved the Craig-Dayton amendment on a voice vote. The action came after backers of the amendment triumphed on a procedural vote, 61 to 38. Sixteen Republicans, breaking from their party leaders, joined 44 Democrats and one independent in supporting the amendment. California’s two Democratic senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, were among those backing it.

Afterward, the amendment’s opponents said they would seek to kill it when the House and Senate write a final version of the trade bill. The House in December narrowly passed the version of the bill Bush wants.

Administration allies seemed caught off-guard by the push for the Craig-Dayton amendment and launched a last-minute effort to thwart it. They released a letter from Commerce Secretary Don Evans and U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick strongly opposing the amendment and threatening to recommend a veto by Bush of the overall bill if it passed.

After the Senate’s vote, Zoellick criticized the amendment as “protectionism under a procedural cover.” He added: “It would cripple America’s ability to open markets around the world, and therefore we will work to ensure it is not in the final bill.”

Business leaders, such as Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said they will urge Congress to shelve the bill unless the amendment ultimately is withdrawn.

In addition to expanding Bush’s trade negotiating power, the bill would extend preferential trade treatment for imports from four Andean nations: Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia.

Tuesday’s action appeared to slow momentum that the trade bill had only recently regained. Last week, Senate negotiators announced a deal to offer expanded government aid, including a large subsidy for health insurance, for some workers who lose their jobs because of competition from foreign trade.

Now, assuming that the Senate soon passes the modified trade bill, lawmakers face difficult negotiations with the House.

Times staff writer Warren Vieth contributed to this report.