House Speaker Ryan: No point in lame duck vote on TPP deal (They don't have the votes.)
Source: Reuters
Politics | Thu Aug 4, 2016 5:32pm EDT
House Speaker Ryan: No point in lame duck vote on TPP deal
U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday that he saw no point in bringing up the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal for a vote in any "lame duck" session of Congress later this year after November elections, because "we don't have the votes."
"As long as we don't have the votes, I see no point in bringing up an agreement only to defeat it," Ryan, a Republican, said in an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio.
Despite both U.S. presidential candidates bashing the 12-country Pacific trade deal on the campaign trail, Obama administration officials have pledged to make a major push in coming months to persuade the Republican-majority Congress to pass TPP.
Backed by dozens of business and industry groups, officials from the U.S. Commerce Department, the U.S. Trade Representative's office and the White House say they are continuing to talk with individual lawmakers about the merits of the deal, including its consequences for U.S. leadership in Asia.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-ryan-idUSKCN10F2KJ