Pritzker expects fast-track to pass Congress

Obama administration officials are acknowledging the challenge of passing trade promotion authority (TPA) as they ramp up efforts to build broad support.

Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said Thursday that getting a fast-track measure through Congress has always proven difficult and that this time around won’t be any different.

{mosads}”These are never easy votes so let’s not think it’s different or there’s some circumstance now that’s different than before,” she said in a call with reporters.

“Trade promotion legislation is a hard vote to get passed because takes a lot of explanation as to what it is,” she said.

Still, Pritzker is confident that a fast-track measure, despite widespread opposition from Democrats in Congress, will pass, most likely by a small margin.

Pritzer said she has been talking to Republicans and Democrats who were involved in previous TPA battles and understands what is needed to get push a measure through Congress.

The last TPA bill passed in 2002, only by a few votes in the House.

Earlier in the day, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said that a TPA vote is a “close call,” according to press reports.

Pritzker and Jeff Zients, director of the White House National Economic Council, said the lobbying effort to convince lawmakers and Americans continues in earnest and will succeed on TPA and the broader trade agenda.

Zients, who has led the White House’s campaign to get Cabinet members talking to Democrats about gaining their support, reiterated President Obama’s message that trade will create more and better paying jobs while boosting the nation’s overall growth.

He argued that exports are essential to growing the U.S. economy and that “trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership can boost wages and help protect American workers.”

Obama administration officials used Minnesota as an example of how trade can work, especially for smaller businesses.

The Commerce Department reported on Thursday that last year merchandise exports from the state hit a record $21.4 billion, helping bring the U.S. total to a $2.35 trillion record for goods and services exports.

Pritzker, as well as other Cabinet officials, has been on the road hawking the trade agenda to small- and medium-sized business. She recently zipped through the West Coast cities of San Francisco, Seattle and Portland making the sell.

She is meeting with small-business owners and said they are pressing for the trade agreements to pass because they will make it easier for them export their goods and compete with countries like China. 

Opponents of TPA and the trade deals have taken similar action, seeking to build support for their stance around the country.