Tag Archives: Trade promotion authority

Seven Reasons to Vote No on TPA

Posted on June 11, 2026 by | 8 comments
Seven Reasons to Vote No on TPA

For the last several years, the Obama administration, with the enthusiastic support of most congressional Republicans, has been negotiating two mammoth trade partnerships that would put our nation on the path to economic and political integration with eleven Pacific Rim nations (including eventually China) and the 28 member states of the European Union.
Of course, the congressional supporters of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) never mention the threat to our independence and freedom represented by these two partnership deals.
On May 22 the Senate passed Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), aka fast-track authority, which restricts Congress to only an up-or-down vote (with no amendments or filibuster allowed) on trade agreements. The House is expected to debate and vote on the Senate TPA bill sometime during this week or the next.
The House vote on TPA is so crucial because the highly dangerous TPP and TTIP partnerships very likely cannot gain approval from Congress without the TPA restrictions in place. If we stop TPA, we’ll be making it much more difficult for TPP and TTIP to be approved.
Here are 7 reasons why the House of Representatives should vote NO on TPA (as stated in “7 Reasons Why Trade Promotion Authority/Fast Track Must Be Defeated.”
  1. TPA is essential to passage of the very dangerous TPP and TTIP.
  2. TPA is a “bum’s rush” that ratifies a secret, corrupt process and aims to ratify a secret, corrupt product.
  3. TPA is an unconscionable abdication of constitutional responsibility by Congress.
  4. TPA not only hands power to Obama, but to his successor as well.
  5. TPA is another giant step in the unconstitutional transfer of congressional authority to the president.
  6. TPA also challenges the Constitution by violating the requirement that treaties be ratified by a super-majority vote of two-thirds of the U.S. Senate.
  7. The TPA will speed the transfer of immense power to federal and international judges to eviscerate the Constitution; to strike down federal, state, and local laws; and to legislate from the bench.
Please phone your representative and tell him or her or someone on the staff a few of the above 7 reasons to vote NO on TPA. Click here for the phone numbers for your representative’s various offices. Make a phone call to both your rep’s DC office and the local office as phone calls have a greater impact.
Then, please send an email for additional impact.
The House will take up TPA either this week or next week. Contact your Representative now!
Would the New Trade Deals Supersede the Constitution?

JBS CEO Arthur Thompson answers the question of whether or not the Constitution is superseded by trade deals. He also mentions U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions’ letter to Obama (The New American covers that here) regarding Sessions’ legitimate concerns.
HuffPost IDs 5 “Most Extreme [Common Core] Claims”

And congrats to The John Birch Society! Two of the top five mention JBS affiliates FreedomProject Education and The New American. No surprise here though as this originated from an online report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
Click here for our reporting on the SPLC and Common Core posted about a month ago.
Would these Common Core protesters agree with the HuffPost and SPLC’s broad-brush smearing?
Staking Claim in the New World Order: Newest Issue From TNA

Alex Newman of The New American exposes how, with the help of Western globalists, China is actively pursing a leading role in the New World Order. He also makes the case of how a Westernized China is a myth.
In the same issue (June 22, 2026), William Jasper sums up his research of the upcoming trade agreements, which are a must-read for any American interested in protecting American independence and sovereignty.
All of this and much more in the newest issue now available for immediate download or as a physical copy mailed directly to you.

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ObamaTrade “Fast Track” Still Alive Despite Senate Smack Down

Posted on May 18, 2026 by | 4 comments

Written by for the NEW AMERICAN MAGAZINE

Opponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnersdhip (TTIP) rejoiced over the Senate’s May 12 thumbs-down vote on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), but another TPA/Fast Track match is looming, as lobbyists, the White House, the GOP, and Dems work out backroom deals.

The 52-45 cloture vote in the Senate on Tuesday fell short of the 60 votes needed to cut off the Democrats’ filibuster and bring the Trade Promotion Authority bill to the Senate floor. The vote, which pitted the Obama White House and Senate Republicans against the president’s own party, has been reported in most of the establishment media as a “stinging defeat” for President Obama on one of his top agenda items. However, all is not as it seems on the surface, and some analysts who have been following the TPP/TTIP negotiations and legislation very closely warn that unless opponents keep up the pressure — and increase it — the next Senate Fast Track vote (which may come before the Memorial Day break) is likely to flip in the other direction.

Larry Greenley, who tracks legislation for The John Birch Society, says the May 12 cloture vote is positive in the sense that it has delayed Fast Track and shows that there is sufficient public opposition to the pseudo-free trade agenda to make many Democratic politicians nervous about voting for it. But, he told The New American, the “Nay” votes include Democrats who have already committed to supporting TPA and TPP, and who will likely switch to the “Yea” side on the next TPA vote. He points, for instance, to Senators Bennet (Colo.), Cantwell (Wash.), Feinstein (Calif.), McCaskill (Mo.), Murray (Wash.), Nelson (Fla.), Warner (Va.), and Wyden (Ore.) as likely flip votes in the next round. “Opponents of the TPA and TPP/TTIP should not read too much into this vote, or think that it means we’ve defeated Fast Track” and the ObamaTrade bills, Greenley said. “The real tests on these issues are yet to come.”

Why, then, did the Democrats vote en masse against giving President Obama Fast Track authority? Leverage, for one thing; protective coloration for another. The Democrats that favor the Trans-Pacific Partnership want to expand it, to wrap several more features into it. They insist that the TPA must contain Trade Adjustment Assistance, to provide government assistance to workers and businesses adversely affected by the TPP; a customs bill; and measures against foreign currency manipulation.

Also, many of the Democrats who intend, ultimately, to vote for the TPA and TPP know that doing so will cause a large chunk of their base — particularly organized labor — to retaliate against them on election day. To soften that backlash, they need to have a vote they can show to union voters indicating that they opposed TPA. The May 12 vote has provided them with that cover; they can point to that roll call and declare that they fought to make the TPP/TTIP work for the little guy, not just for the big corporate interests.

The Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) bill, as we have explained in more detail in previous articles (see here and here), is essential for passage of the TPP and TTIP. Virtually all of the pseudo-free trade agreements have depended on the TPA/Fast Track process to rush the complex agreements through Congress on an up-or-down, high-pressure vote, with very little time to examine or debate the text, and with no amendments or filibusters allowed.

The truly bizarre element in the TPA battle is the fervor of the Republican leadership in Congress demanding that their supposed arch-enemy, President Barack Obama, be given TPA powers to ram through, on the Fast Track, the secret TPP/TTIP agreements that he won’t even allow members of Congress full access to. With ObamaTrade, they would be handing him far more power than they did with ObamaCare. Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader who has led this strange and destructive effort, sounded like an Obama White House sock puppet after the vote. “This is not a game,” McConnell said after the vote. “This is about trying to accomplish something important for the country that happens to be the president’s No. 1 domestic priority.”

McConnell and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) will be leading the GOP charge in this odd “bipartisan” effort to help President Obama round up the Senate Democrat votes he needs. Expect another vote on TPA very soon.

Editor’s note: On May 14, just hours after this article was published, the Senate agreed to invoke cloture and proceed with the TPA measure by a vote of 65 to 33.

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