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Senate Passes Legislation to Ensure “Fast-Track” Procedures for Approval of Key Trade Deals
On June 24, after weeks of legislative wrangling and extensive lobbying by influential interest groups, the U.S. Senate passed the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015, better known as the Trade Promotion Authority (“TPA”) legislation. The House approved identical legislation last week, so the President now can sign TPA into law.
Although enactment of TPA is technically not a prerequisite for Congress to consider pending free trade agreements (“FTAs”), the “fast track” procedures contained within the TPA legislation offer the President critical leverage to finalize negotiations for several key FTAs and provide assurances to trading partners that Congress will not reopen the negotiations after the agreement has been finalized. In particular, the TPA bill mandates the use of several procedures to accelerate Congressional consideration of legislation to implement a trade agreement. These expedited procedures include: