Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call(WASHINGTON) — As President Obama continues to search for votes to support so-called “fast-track” Trade Promotion Authority, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi warned that Republicans must bring 200 aye votes to the floor in order to assure passage.
“I think that 200 is what [House Speaker John Boehner] should come up with,” Pelosi, D-California, said. “The speaker should be able to deliver 200 votes. The awesome power of the speaker — I know of what I speak.”
Currently, just 17 House Democrats have publicly declared their support for TPA. Although Pelosi admitted that a few more might eventually support it, she stressed that “it is a very large number in our caucus that is not supportive of it.”
“Maybe there’ll be more Democrats. I don’t know,” Pelosi said coyly. “Two-hundred. That would be a good, round number. A little safe number — safety in numbers — in case somebody doesn’t show up that day. You know.”
A short time later at his own news conference, Boehner refused to reveal how close the GOP leadership is to lining up enough votes for passage, adding that building a House majority is still a work in progress though he believes it will pass.
“I’m not the whip, so I don’t get into vote counts,” Boehner said. “We’re working to get the trade promotion authority finished, and as I said before, it’s important for the country.”
Boehner said he has been meeting with members over the last few days and spoke to President Obama on Wednesday.
“He’s got some work to do, too,” Boehner said of the president.
Asked whether she believes she has a responsibility for passing the president’s trade bill, Pelosi said the onus is on Boehner.
“It’s absolutely the Speaker’s responsibility. It’s where the support exists in his caucus,” she said. “He has the majority, and it’s his responsibility, and every time we had a bill that came to the floor when I was Speaker, he said it was a test of my leadership. It’s a test of his. I have confidence in him. I think he can deliver 200 [Republican votes] but it’s not my responsibility.”
Pelosi has not ruled out supporting TPA, but however guarded her comments have been she cited “an opportunity to do something great” in terms of the United States’ presence in the global economy.
“Our members are taking this very, very seriously. We have many members who are not supporting this, who have, over time, always supported trade initiatives, that just don’t think that this reaches the standard that we need to go forward with 11 different kinds of countries,” she said. “But you have to ask them individually, because these are individual votes.”
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