Blunt testing waters for stand-alone TAA bill in Senate

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) is testing Senate support for a stand-alone measure that provides retraining for workers who've lost their jobs because of foreign trade and is at the center the debate over taking final votes on three pending free trade agreements, a source told The Hill on Thursday. 

If Blunt can get enough Republicans on board to guarantee passage, the White House might agree to drop its demand that Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) be attached to the deal with Korea. 

It's unknown if Blunt has garnered any support for the move, the source said. 

Congressional Republicans strongly oppose the move by the White House to put TAA and the Korean trade deal together as a way to guarantee its passage. 

How to proceed on TAA is holding up votes for all three pending agreements with Korea, Colombia and Panama.

House Republicans could hold separate votes on TAA and recombine the two parts before sending Korea over to the Senate. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he won't contest a separate vote on the worker-aid program if a renewal of fast-track authority is included in a bill, which isn't a requirement of the House. 

Right now, the White House has made it clear that TAA must go through at the same time as the trade deals and, so far, including it in an implementing bill is the only viable option that has emerged.

"So far, no other credible alternatives have been offered to get the trade agreements and TAA done in a timely fashion," a senior administration official told The Hill. 

House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said last week that he will take up the worker assistance program and move it with the three trade agreements but that would likely mean a separate vote on the measure. 

He vowed to work out a way to get the bill the President Obama's desk while Democrats questioned whether the bill could get through the Senate. 

Camp, the Obama administration and Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) reached an agreement last week that appeared to put the trade deals on a glide path to passage. But the inclusion of TAA in the Korean deal halted progress. 

Negotiators agreed on the substance of a streamlined worker-retraining program that costs significantly less than the 2009 version and is paid for with offsets in other programs. 

As negotiations continue, time is running short with the Obama administration and congressional leaders aiming to complete the trade deals before the August recess, which at this point is expected to start for both chambers on Aug. 6.

If the trade deals aren't done by then they could be pushed off for an indefinite period of time as budget talks -- the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1 -- are expected to dominate the September legislative landscape. 

In addition, the trade deals appear to be taking a back seat to the ongoing debt-ceiling negotiations.