The week after pledging his vote to President Obama on fast-track consideration of an upcoming trade deal, Rep. Jim Himes is drawing heat from organized labor in Connecticut for tagging along on Air Force One to the G7 summit at a posh resort in the Bavarian Alps.
Himes is one of four Democrats who sided with Obama against the majority of their party in the House on controversial Trade Promotion Authority — fast track.
TPA, as it’s known, authorizes the president to negotiate a trade agreement that Congress could then only approve or disapprove without amendments. The other three on the trip are Reps. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas and Mike Quigley of Illinois.
“Congressman Himes’ decision to support anti-worker and anti-democratic fast-track legislation is a major disappointment for working families in Connecticut and across the country,’’ said Lori Pelletier, executive secretary treasurer of the Connecticut AFL-CIO. “To find out that by publicly supporting fast track, he received this exclusive perk is disheartening to say the least.’’
Pelletier added that Himes’ time in Germany would have been better spent taking “a tour of the abandoned factories in Bridgeport to witness the devastation these trade deals have wrought on his district.’’
The two-day summit, which wrapped up Monday, unfolded at the lavish century-old Schloss Elmau resort & spa, with stunning views of beclouded and snow-capped mountain peaks. The annual conference of the world’s leading industrial democracies — Canada, France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Japan in addition to the U.S. — is long on weighty topics including climate change, sustainable energy and world hot spots such as Iran, Iraq and the Ukraine.
But such summits traditionally also involve rounds of glass-clinking and hob-nobing with counterparts of other nations. For Himes, there’d be little expectation of heavy lifting.
The summit did give him some exposure on subjects firmly within his Capitol Hill wheelhouse, including financial regulation and trade.
Himes had been behind the eight ball on trade, one of the few House Democrats whose vote was up for grabs. With most House Democrats and many Tea-Party Republicans believing fast-track and the underlying trade deal will further erode American jobs, winning the vote of Himes and other more center-leaning Democrats was high priority for Obama.
Himes announced his decision last week in the wake of two White House meetings and a personal phone call from the president.
A former Goldman Sachs executive who has battled local progressives on trade and Wall Street reform, Himes had long been leaning toward fast track and the trade deal in question, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. But he insisted he would not vote for any of it if he concluded the negatives outweighed the positives for the 4th congressional district’s economy.
In an interview last week after his announcement, Himes laughed off suggestion that the president had wooed him with promises of infrastructure improvements in his Fairfield County district such as new railroad or highway bridges.
“There were no deals made,’’ he said.
On Monday his spokesman, Patrick Malone, dismissed any suggestion that the trip aboard Air Force One and the stay at Schloss Elmau was a reward for Himes’ fast-track announcement.
“Jim has spent months in careful consideration of this bill and spent hours and hours with the text of both (fast track) and TPP coming to the best decision for his constituents,’’ he said. “There are other members on the trip who have been confirmed “yeses’’ on the bill for a long time, so there’s just no quid pro quo here at all.’’
The Senate voted last month to approve fast track and a vote in the House has yet to take place.