The fast track authority for brokering trade agreements is the authority of the President of the United States to negotiate international agreements in an expedited manner and with limited congressional oversight. Renamed the trade promotion authority (TPA) in 2002, the TPA is an impermanent power granted by Congress to the President. It remained in effect from 1975 to 1994, pursuant to the Trade Act of 1974 and from 2002 to 2007 pursuant to the Trade Act of 2002. Although it technically expired in July 2007, it remained in effect for agreements that were already under negotiation until their passage in 2011. In June 2015, a third renewal passed Congress and was signed into law by President Barack Obama.
Under the TPA, the President's trade negotiations must follow guidelines and negotiating objectives set by Congress. If the negotiations follow the negotiating objectives, the implementing bill may pass Congress on majority votes instead of the three-fifths threshold normally needed in the Senate to conclude debate on a bill or the two-thirds threshold for the Senate to ratify a treaty. Congress may not amend or filibuster the implementing bill. The TPA is the mechanism used by the U.S. government to pass the North American Free Trade Agreement as well as other congressional-executive agreements. It has been praised for allowing the government to negotiate trade deals which would otherwise have been impossible to complete. However, it has also been criticized for usurping congressional powers and for lacking transparency.
Content and scope
The TPA had the effect of delegating congressional power to the executive branch with limitations. Fast track agreements are enacted as "congressional-executive agreements" (CEAs), which are negotiated for by the executive branch following set guidelines from Congress, and are approved by a majority in both chambers of Congress. Without the TPA legislation, the President's power to negotiate trade deals is restricted by Article II, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution which states that: "[The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur."
If a trade agreement that reduces tariffs or non-tariff barriers to trade negotiated by the executive branch meets the guidelines set by Congress, the TPA allows Congress to "consider the required implementing bill under expedited procedures pursuant to which the bill may come to the floor without action by the leadership." The implementing bill is guaranteed an up-or-down vote with no amendments. An implementing bill may go through the expedited process if it follows the congressional guides and: (1) the trade agreement was negotiated during a set time period for which the TPA is in effect; (2) the agreement follows negotiation objectives set by the statute; and (3) during the negotiation process, the executive branch sent required notifications and conducted consultations with Congress and other stakeholders. The 2002 version of the authority created an additional requirement for 90-day notice to Congress before negotiations could begin.
The 1979 version of the authority changed the name of the STR to the U.S. Trade Representative.
Congressional procedure
If the President transmits a fast track trade agreement to Congress, then the majority leaders of the House and Senate or their designees must introduce the implementing bill submitted by the President on the first day on which their House is in session. (.) Senators and Representatives may not amend the President's bill, either in committee or in the Senate or House. (.) The committees to which the bill has been referred have 45 days after its introduction to report the bill, or be automatically discharged, and each House must vote within 15 days after the bill is reported or discharged. (.)
In the likely case that the bill is a revenue bill (as tariffs are revenues), the bill must originate in the House (see U.S. Const., art I, sec. 7). After the bill passes in the House, it is sent to the Senate where the Senate Finance Committee has jurisdiction. (.) On the House and Senate floors, each Body can debate the bill for no more than 20 hours, and thus Senators cannot filibuster the bill and it will pass with a simple majority vote. (.) Thus, it is possible that the entire Congressional consideration of a bill takes no longer than 90 days.