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 The Senate on Tuesday voted to advance President Obama’s trade agenda, approving a measure to end debate on fast-track authority. 
 
 The 60-37 motion sets up a vote on final passage on Wednesday. If the Senate approves fast-track or trade promotion authority (TPA), it would then be sent to Obama’s desk to become law. 
 
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 Fast-track authority would allow Obama to send trade deals to Congress for up-or-down votes. The White House wants the authority to conclude negotiations on a sweeping trans-Pacific trade deal. 
 
 Thirteen Democrats backed fast-track in Tuesday’s vote, handing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellTrump steps up courtship of Dems Senate defense bill at standstill over amendment fight Overnight Health Care: Sanders enjoys big moment with single-payer bill | Five things to know about Sanders's plan | Trump applauds senators' latest ObamaCare repeal effort MORE (R-Ky.) a major legislative victory. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) voted against the procedural motion. 
 
 The Democrats cast "yes" votes even though the trade package did not include a workers assistance program for people displaced by increased trade. The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program was a part of the last fast-track package approved by the Senate in May, but became a key part of opposition to the package among Democrats in the House. 
 
 To move fast-track forward, the White House and GOP leaders in both chambers decided to break TAA away from fast-track and to try to approve both in separate votes. 
 
 After the Senate votes Wednesday on final passage for fast-track, it will take a procedural vote on a package that includes TAA and trade preferences for African countries known as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). 
 
 McConnell has promised both bills will reach Obama’s desk by the end of the week. 
 
 “If we all keep working together and trusting each other, then by the end of the week the President will have TPA, TAA and AGOA and Preferences on his desk,” he said on the floor. 
 
 The House has already passed fast-track but it must still vote on the package including TAA, which faces opposition from conservatives. 
 
 Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) reiterated on Tuesday his pledge to vote again on TAA as soon as it clears the upper chamber. 
 
 “The House will consider TAA once it passes the Senate as part of a new trade preferences bill. And we are ready to go to conference on the customs bill. Our goal is to get TPA and TAA to the president's desk this week and deliver this win for the American people,” he said in a statement. 
 
 The Senate vote to end a filibuster against fast-track appeared in doubt until the final moment as a group of pro-trade Democrats balked at McConnell’s decision to split it off from TAA, a move made necessary to circumvent opposition in the House. 
 
 Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet (Colo.), Chris Coons (Del.), Ben Cardin (Md.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Maria Cantwell (Wash.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Patty Murray (Wash.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) refused to say publicly how they would vote. 
 
 McConnell’s margin for error shrank further when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who is running for president, announced he would vote to block the bill, declaring in a Breitbart.com op-ed that it had “become enmeshed in corrupt Washington backroom dealmaking.” 
 
 Other Republican White House hopefuls, including Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, oppose fast-track. 
 
 Sen. Ron Wyden Ronald (Ron) Lee WydenIt is time to make domestic terrorism a federal crime McConnell: Blue slips shouldn't 'blackball' circuit court nominees 21st Century Fox backs bill to stop online sex trafficking MORE (Ore.), the senior Democrat on the Finance Committee, held talks with other pro-trade Democrats late into the evening Monday to address their concerns. 
 
 He delivered an impassioned speech in favor of the bill shortly before the vote, arguing that it would allow the United States to keep pace with China in the competition for Asian markets. 
 
 “This is our chance to set a new course. This is our chance to put in place higher standards in global trade on matters like labor rights and environmental protection, shine some real sunlight on trade agreements and ensure that our country writes the rules of the road,” he said. 
 
 Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who co-wrote the trade bill with Wyden, argued the vast majority of global economic growth will take place outside of the United States over the next decade. 
 
 “If our workers, farmers, ranchers and service providers are going to be able to compete in these growing markets, we must have open access to these markets and fair trade rules to boot,” he said on the floor. 
 
 Opponents led by Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) warned fast-track would cost thousands of American jobs and allow multi-national companies to evade U.S. law. 
 
 Brown reproached his colleagues for voting to give Obama fast-track authority while having little idea of the shape of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade accord that will receive expedited consideration in Congress as a result. 
 
 “We’ve gotten the worst of both worlds because we’re voting on TPA and we haven’t been able to see what’s in TPP,” Brown said before the vote. 
 
 The AFL-CIO waged a fierce lobbying campaign against fast-track for months. 
 
 “It will do nothing to prevent repeating the mistakes of failed trade policies that have contributed to stagnating wages, increasing inequality and the closure of more than 60,000 factories since 2000,” the union wrote in a letter dated Monday. 
 
 Thomas J. Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and other business leaders applauded the development. 
 
 “Today’s vote is an important step towards revitalizing our economy, creating more good American jobs, and reasserting our country’s global economic leadership,” Donohue said in a statement. 
 
 Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) missed the vote. McConnell said Corker would have voted "yes" if he had been present, while Brown noted that Lee and Menendez would have voted "no." ||||| President Obama scored a victory for his trade agenda on Wednesday when after weeks of uncertainty the Senate voted to give him expanded powers to negotiate international deals. 
 
 The Senate voted 60 to 38 to clear legislation granting the president so-called fast-track trade authority, which would make it easier for the administration to negotiate trade deals by preventing them from being amended by Congress. 
 
 To get the bill through Congress, the president teamed up with Republican leaders on a rare issue where they share a common goal. Many congressional Democrats opposed the fast-track bill over concerns that trade agreements hurt U.S. workers more than they help the broader economy. 
 
 “Achieving this positive outcome was never going to be easy, but it proves that the power of a good idea, no matter where it comes from, can win out over the stasis of gridlock,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement. He added: “We’re grateful for the President’s efforts to help us move this idea forward, and we applaud him for speaking truth-to-power to his base.” 
 
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 Congress is poised to soon clear other trade legislation sought by the White House. 
 
 The Senate on Wednesday also passed, by voice vote, a bill reauthorizing a program that provides aid and retraining for workers who lose their jobs to outsourcing as part of a package that also includes widely-supported trade preferences. 
 
 The plan is for the House to clear that bill for the president on Thursday. 
 
 House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday paved the way for Democrats to support this Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) bill when she announced that she will now support the legislation. Many House Republicans oppose TAA, meaning it needs Democratic support for passage. 
 
 Securing passage of both the fast-track and worker assistance bills amounts to a victory for Obama as he seeks to finalize major trade pacts before he leaves office, including one with 11 Pacific Rim countries, that will set rules, regulations and tariffs for economic relations between an estimated 40 percent of the global economy. 
 
 Entering the day, there remained a question over whether House Democrats would scuttle passage of the worker aid bill to highlight their objections to the president’s broader trade agenda. 
 
 Pelosi’s announcement, however, likely put that issue to rest. 
 
 “While we may not all vote in the same manner on TAA, I will support its passage because it can open the door to a full debate on [the Trans-Pacific Partnership],” Pelosi wrote in a letter to House Democrats that was released Wednesday. 
 
 Pelosi went on to say that she is disappointed that the aid package covers a limited number of workers and it should be expanded. Her support is expected to sway a large portion of Democrats who voted against the bill earlier this month as part of an effort to sink the fast track trade authority legislation. 
 
 That maneuver successfully delayed the trade bills for several days and led to the latest strategy of separating the votes on fast-track and workers assistance. 
 
 The TAA bill won support from some labor groups that successfully lobbied Democrats to earlier oppose the legislation after it became clear that the Senate will clear the fast-track bill on Wednesday. The Alliance for American Manufacturing, a partnership between steelmakers and the United Steelworkers Union, wrote lawmakers on Wednesday urging a yes vote on TAA. 
 
 “We urge you to advance the Trade Preferences Extension Act, which will help to level the playing field for U.S. companies and American workers, and to ensure that it quickly becomes law,” the group wrote. 
 
 Read more PowerPost ||||| The House on Friday dealt a staggering blow to President Barack Obama’s trade agenda, as Democrats turned en masse against the president just hours after he made a direct appeal to salvage a centerpiece of his second-term platform. 
 
 Lawmakers easily defeated a measure to help workers displaced by free trade known as Trade Adjustment Assistance. The aid package needed to pass in order to enact companion legislation that would give Obama fast-track trade authority to complete the sweeping, 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. 
 
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 The vote on the TAA bill was 126-302. 
 
 “Whatever the deal is with other countries,” Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said before the vote, breaking her longtime silence on the issue, “we want a better deal for America’s workers.” 
 
 The vote came after President Barack Obama, in a last-ditch effort, made a rare visit to the Capitol to lobby for legislation. He implored Democrats to “play it straight” on the decisive vote. 
 
 Obama spent roughly 40 minutes with Democratic lawmakers, taking no questions but telling his party to “vote your values,” according to a source in the room. 
 
 But Democratic lawmakers rebuffed him hours later, voting overwhelmingly to scuttle the trade package that was a centerpiece of the president’s second-term agenda. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had remained silent for weeks on the trade issue, went to the House floor shortly before the vote to speak against the trade deal. 
 
 Afterward, Pelosi linked trade to her party’s uphill effort to enact a long-term highway funding bill. “The prospects for passage of” the trade bill, she wrote in a letter to fellow Democrats, “will greatly increase with the passage of a robust highway bill.” 
 
 After TAA failed, the House approved fast-track legislation, known as Trade Promotion Authority, in a 219-211 vote. But that vote was largely for show, because enactment of TPA is contingent on approval of TAA. 
 
 The House could vote again on TAA next week. If enough votes flipped to pass it, it would mean that TPA prevailed as well, because the two bills are interconnected. 
 
 House Republican leaders say they have 100 votes for TAA, and Democrats would need to provide 118 if another vote happens. On Friday, Democrats provided 40 votes for TAA, while 86 Republicans supported it. In other words, Democrats would need to essentially triple their vote total to pass the measure. 
 
 White House spokesman Josh Earnest downplayed the defeat as a “procedural snafu,” comparing it to the Senate’s initial rejection of the legislation before it was later adopted. 
 
 “To the surprise of very few, another procedural snafu has emerged,’’ Earnest told reporters. “These kinds of entanglements are endemic to the House of Representatives.’’ 
 
 With his trade push on the ropes, Obama headed to Capitol Hill Friday morning to plead with his party to bail him out. The president needed to convince Democrats to back TAA, which would provide aid and retraining to workers who lose their jobs to trade agreements. The TAA bill was intertwined with legislation to give Obama Trade Promotion Authority. 
 
 House Democrats — most of whom have been firmly entrenched in their position for weeks — emerged from the meeting with the president still divided. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a pro-trade Democrat from Oregon, said Obama “hit it out of the park.” 
 
 “It was a powerful presentation,” Blumeuaer said. But another supporter, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said afterward it would be an “uphill climb to get to 217,” referring to the number of votes needed to pass a bill. 
 
 That turned out to be an understatement. 
 
 “TAA has always been an absolute admission to me that there is going to be lots of lost jobs,” Rep. Louise Slaughter, a top House Democrat from New York, said before the vote. Multiple Democrats echoed that sentiment on the House floor. 
 
 There was also palpable anger at the president leading up to the vote. Rep. Peter DeFazio said he thought Obama “tried to guilt people and impugn their integrity.” 
 
 “There was a number of us who were insulted,” DeFazio (D-Ore.) said in an interview after the meeting with Obama. 
 
 Obama acknowledged the uncertainty surrounding the Friday vote, which turned out to be much more lopsided than anyone expected. 
 
 “I don’t think you ever nail anything down around here, it’s always moving,” the president told reporters after he spoke with lawmakers. 
 
 Republicans and Democrats were predicting ahead of the vote that TAA was headed for defeat — bringing fast track down with it — unless the dynamic dramatically shifted this morning. Obama’s visit to Capitol Hill, a rare round of personal lobbying by a president not known for his relationships with lawmakers, was designed to do just that. 
 
 Obama arrived at Pelosi’s second-floor Capitol office suite at 9:41 a.m., waving to a small group of reporters gathered in the hallway. He walked into the House Democratic Caucus meeting with Pelosi and Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the assistant minority leader. 
 
 Obama also made an appearance at the congressional baseball game on Thursday night, and top administration officials — including Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough — have been meeting with Democrats for the past several days. 
 
 Some Democrats were clearly unmoved by the direct appeal from the commander-in-chief. 
 
 “We’re going to win today,” Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), a member of the Ways and Means Committee, declared before the meeting with Obama. “No on both.” 
 
 The eleventh hour drama came as top lawmakers and aides said they had no idea going in how Friday’s momentous vote would play out. 
 
 Pelosi (D-Calif.) had been mum on both bills bill, which created an opening for liberal opposition to TAA to swell. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said he planned to vote for TAA, but didn’t signal his position on the larger fast-track bill. Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the assistant Democratic leader, was undecided. 
 
 House Republican leaders needed a large number of Democrats to vote for TAA in order for it to pass. 
 
 “I think Republicans are going to provide a share of their votes based upon what Republicans have done in the past, and it’s up to the Democrat leadership and the president to get Democrats on board,” Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio) said on Thursday. He, along with House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), led the pro-trade whip operation. 
 
 Democrats have traditionally backed TAA, with its focus on helping struggling unemployed workers. But Democrats complained to White House officials this week that the TAA package was too small, and argued the president should be leaning on Republicans to enlarge it. 
 
 But many Democrats came to view the jobs assistance bill as a way to sink the entire trade package. 
 
 Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Sandy Levin (Mich.), the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, led the push for Democrats to vote against TAA. And they were joined, in the end, by Pelosi. 
 
 Defeating the jobs aid bill, the Democratic leader said minutes before the vote, “is the only way we will be able to slow down fast track.”
– President Obama's trade agenda lives to fight another day. The Senate this morning handed him the 60 votes he needed, voting 60-37 to end debate on his request for fast-track negotiating authority. It'll vote on final passage for fast-track tomorrow, which the New York Times sees as "virtually ensured" as final passage needs just 51 votes. As earlier reported, 14 Democratic senators backed fast track in a late May vote, and 13 did so today. The timeline, per the Hill: After the fast-track vote, the Senate will vote on a package that includes Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA)—a measure that would provide job training and other help to people who lose their jobs because of the trade deal. Democrats have insisted TAA be paired with the fast track; some on the other side of the aisle oppose it. The House will then need to vote on it, and both Mitch McConnell and John Boehner have pledged to make TAA law. As Politico puts it, today's vote "came as Democrats wavered on whether to trust" them to do so.