re: #349 Nyet

You very well know that voting on TPA is a part of a larger set of decision concerning TPP. So yes, they understand what fasttracking is. In addition to that they also have to know what is it that they’re supposed to fasttrack. This would seem so obvious that I’m not sure what the source of your confusion is.

I’m confused because you seem to think they voted on fast tracking, but they didn’t. They had the opportunity, had they voted on this issue, to vote on fast-tracking, and reject it, but they didn’t do that.

If they want to reject fast-tracking, and preserve the ability to add amendments, they can do that by voting on it—which would effectively kill the treaty. They could also vote to allow fast-tracking and then reject the treaty. These are all things they can do. When it comes time to actually accept the treaty, they will definitely be able to read it. What they are doing now is not voting on the treaty.

The thing that the democrats are trying to block is giving the president authority to submit trade bills to congress without amendment. It has nothing to do with whether or not they are able to read this particular treaty before it is presented to them. They will obviously, when voting on the actual treaty, be able to read it (well, the Senate will).