 Getty Senate salvages Obama trade agenda More than a dozen Democrats side with the GOP to give the president fast-track authority. The Senate on Tuesday narrowly voted to end debate on legislation granting Mr. Obama enhanced negotiating powers to complete a major Pacific trade accord, virtually assuring final passage Wednesday of Mr. Obama’s top legislative priority in his final years in office. 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. 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. “This is typical of the United States Congress to not only not do things timely, but completely late and disrupt the lives of thousands of American workers and thousands of American businesses. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) Had he not shown, Republican leaders were prepared to hold the vote open to allow GOP Sen. Bob Corker to fly back from Tennessee to finish the job. “The previous explanation that we heard from some Democrats who voted against trade adjustment assistance — something that Democrats have steadfastly supported for decades — is that they were doing that in an effort to slow down the advancement of trade promotion authority legislation,” he said. “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. I’m not happy with it.” 
 
 Boehner and McConnell issued a flurry of promises that they will usher TAA through their respective chambers; a vote in the Senate is expected on Thursday. Tuesday’s vote was the second time the Senate had blocked a filibuster of fast-track authority, but this time the bill was shorn of a separate measure to offer enhanced retraining and educational assistance to workers displaced by international trade accords. I don’t think comfort has anything to do with it,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). “Occasionally, even the leader of the Democratic Party, the president of the United States, gets things right,” said Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. But I think it will reap benefits far beyond just this particular piece of legislation.” 
 
 Getting to 60 votes, though, took more than just trust and public promises. 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. Passage of a stand-alone trade promotion bill will put pressure on House Democrats, who just over a week ago brought down the worker aid provision, known as trade adjustment assistance, when it was linked to the fast-track legislation, in a strategic move they hoped would defeat the entire trade package. “How shameful is that?” said Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, who led the opposition to trade promotion authority. “We’re making this decision knowing that people will lose their jobs because of our action.” 
 
 But Republicans also had to deal with Cruz’s last-minute denunciation of TPA, even though he supported it last month with TAA attached.
– 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.