"Fast Track" Trade Promotion Authority

"Fast Track" Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), The Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities Act of 2014 (S 1900) and The Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities Act of 2014 (HR 3830) [Bills Comparison], are designed to give the President of the USA authority to negotiate international agreements that the Congress can approve or disapprove but cannot amend or filibuster.

The Senate legislation was introduced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and in the House by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI).

The Baucus measure is co-sponsored by Senate Finance Committee ranking member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) opposes the legislation.

The fast track negotiating authority (also called trade promotion authority or TPA, since 2002) for trade agreements is the authority of the President of the United States to negotiate international agreements that the Congress can approve or disapprove but cannot amend or filibuster. Fast-track negotiating authority is granted to the President by Congress. It was in effect pursuant to the Trade Act of 1974 from 1975 to 1994 and was restored in 2002 by the Trade Act of 2002. It expired for new agreements at midnight on July 1, 2007, but continued to apply to agreements already under negotiation until they were eventually passed into law.

The legislation is important to an administration negotiating trade deals with the European Union, and a group of Asian and Latin American countries under the Trans-Pacific Partnership.  President Obama in 2010 also set a goal of doubling U.S. exports by 2015.  Trade promotion authority would put timetables on congressional consideration of trade deals, and would prevent Congress from amending them in exchange for the administration meeting specific goals laid out in the authority.
Trading partners are thought to be more likely to sign such pacts if they know the deals will be considered by Congress and will not be changed.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports the legislation.  (The Hill, 1/29/2014, Senate Committee on Finance)