Bill would require publicly available trade deal before fast-track vote

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is calling for a change to House rules to prohibit a vote on granting President Obama fast-track trade authority unless the text of a sweeping trans-Pacific trade deal is publicly available.

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Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) has introduced a resolution, titled the Trade Review Accountability Needs Sunlight and Preview of Any Regulations and Exact Negotiated Components (Trade TRANSPAREN-C), to require the trade deal to be publicly available for at least 60 days before Congress could vote to give the president the ability to sign off on an international negotiation. “Today it has become more of a blank check for the executive and turned Congress into little more than a rubber stamp,” Kaptur said in a statement about trade promotion authority (TPA). “This legislation calls for an end to this dangerous and irresponsible approach and replaces it with sunlight in the form of public access and accountability.” More...