NATION/WORLD
Saturday, June 13, 2015
East Oregonian
Page 9A
House rejects Obama’s trade bill Prison worker
arraigned, accused
of aiding escapees
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Led by union-
backed Democrats, the House delivered
a stinging blow to President Barack
Obama on Friday and left his ambitious
global trade agenda in serious doubt.
Republican leaders, who generally
support Obama’s trade objectives,
signaled they might try to revive the
package as early as next week. But that
could require the shifting of at least 90
votes within either or both parties, a
heavy lift.
Friday’s setback was deep and
personal for Obama, who made a
surprise, last-minute trip to the Capitol
to ask House Democrats to back him.
Not only did they reject him by the
dozens, they were led by party leader
Nancy Pelosi of California, who has
often expressed deep admiration for the
president. She joined in a tactic that even
some Democrats called devious and
cynical: voting against a favorite job-re-
training program in order to imperil the
trade package’s main component: “fast
track” negotiating authority for Obama.
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asked Democrats not to do that. But in
a crowded House chamber, Pelosi urged
her colleagues to ignore him.
“Slow down the fast track to get a
better deal for the American people,” she
said, drawing praise from labor unions,
liberals and others who say free-trade
deals send U.S. jobs abroad. Pelosi added
possible new burdens to the legislative
package, saying new highway funding
and “environmental justice” should be
linked to its passage if it’s revived.
In a statement, Obama said the job
retraining program “would give roughly
100,000 American workers access to
vital support each year,” and he urged
the House to pass it as soon as possible
and send the entire trade package for
him to sign.
Other presidents have had fast track
authority, which lets them propose trade
agreements that Congress can ratify or
reject but not amend. The administration
currently is trying to conclude nego-
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including Japan and Canada. Other trade
agreements could follow.
One possible route for pro-trade
forces in Congress is to send revised
legislation back to the Senate. But sena-
tors approved the larger package only
narrowly last month after intense battles,
and the White House desperately wants
to avoid giving opponents there another
chance to strangle the legislation.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest
said Friday’s vote showed congressional
support for fast track, and “our work
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
President Barack Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif.
leave a meeting with House Democrats on Capitol Hill Friday.
is not done yet.” As for Democrats
rejecting the retraining program, he said,
the administration will contend “they
have registered their objections to (fast
track) and it didn’t work.” Earnest said
the administration will urge Democrats
to “support a policy that they have
strongly supported in the past.”
Friday’s crucial vote came when 144
House Democrats joined 158 Republi-
cans to reject extension of Trade Adjust-
ment Assistance, or TAA. The program,
which helps workers who lose their jobs
to international trade, has long been a
priority for Democrats and unions.
But the Senate had tied it to the
broader fast track negotiating authority
for the president, which House Demo-
crats overwhelmingly oppose. Egged
on by the AFL-CIO, Pelosi and others,
the vast majority of House Democrats
voted against the retraining program as a
means to scuttle the entire package.
Moments later, the House did vote,
219-211, to endorse the fast track
portion of the package, but that could go
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Democrats joined 191 Republicans in
voting for it. Voting no were 54 Republi-
cans and 157 Democrats.
Pro-trade forces now must either
reverse the retraining program’s fate or
send a revised fast track bill back to the
Senate, and hope for the best. GOP aides
said more Republicans might possibly
hold their noses and vote for the training
in order to save fast track, a mirror-image
of the Democrats’ counter-intuitive
strategy.
House GOP leaders suggested it’s
up to Democrats to revive the trade
package. “The president has some work
yet to do with his party to complete this
process,” said Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.,
a leading author of the trade legislation.
“This isn’t over yet.”
Yet minutes later, Ryan’s staff sent
reporters lists of headlines highlighting
Democrats’ rebuke of Obama, a strategy
unlikely to improve hopes of a bipartisan
recovery for the trade package.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka
hailed Pelosi, saying, “She stood up
against corporate interests and, as
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often left out of trade agreement discus-
sions.”
Obama drew applause when he
walked into the morning meeting with
Democrats, but sharp words after he left.
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., was
especially withering.
“He’s ignored Congress and disre-
spected Congress for years,” he told
reporters, “and then comes to the caucus
and lectures us for 40 minutes about his
values and whether or not we’re being
honest by using legislative tactics to try
and stop something which we believe is
a horrible mistake for the United States
of America, and questions our integrity.
It wasn’t the greatest strategy.”
Obama says U.S. products must reach
more markets. He says unions and others
should stop harping on perceived harm
from the 1995 NAFTA, which many
critics accuse of shipping American jobs
overseas.
BRIEFLY
Hillary Clinton
woos party with
steps to the left
WASHINGTON (AP)
— Union members broke
into cheers when Hillary
Rodham Clinton said she
supported their efforts to
create a $15-an-hour national
minimum wage.
“Thank you for giving
me this chance to tell you
all how much I support
your movement,” she told
a conference organized
by the Service Employees
International Union. “I want
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Clinton’s words last
weekend weren’t quite
the endorsement they may
have seemed. The next day,
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remarks, saying while Clinton
supported the general push
for higher wages, she wasn’t
backing the more contentious
$15 hourly minimum.
In the eight weeks
since she announced her
presidential bid, Clinton
has moved cautiously to
the left. She’s wooing the
liberal wing of her party with
strong stances on issues like
immigration, where there’s
broad national support for the
Democratic position.
Hack exposed
sensitive military
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WASHINGTON (AP) —
Hackers linked to China have
gained access to the sensitive
background information
submitted by intelligence and
military personnel for security
FOHDUDQFHV86RI¿FLDOV
said Friday, describing
a cyberbreach of federal
records dramatically worse
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The forms authorities
believed may have been
stolen en masse, known as
Standard Form 86, require
DSSOLFDQWVWR¿OORXWGHHSO\
personal information about
mental illnesses, drug and
alcohol use, past arrests and
bankruptcies. They also
require the listing of contacts
and relatives, potentially
exposing any foreign
relatives of U.S. intelligence
employees to coercion. Both
the applicant’s Social Security
number and that of his or her
cohabitant is required.
“This tells the Chinese the
identities of almost everybody
who has got a United States
security clearance,” said Joel
Brenner, a former top U.S.
FRXQWHULQWHOOLJHQFHRI¿FLDO
“That makes it very hard
for any of those people to
function as an intelligence
RI¿FHU7KHGDWDEDVHDOVR
tells the Chinese an enormous
amount of information
about almost everyone with
a security clearance. That’s
a gold mine. It helps you
approach and recruit spies.”
Airstrikes destroy
part of Yemen’s
UNESCO site
SANAA, Yemen (AP) —
Saudi-led airstrikes targeting
Shiite rebels and their allies
in Yemen destroyed historic
houses on Friday in the
center of the capital, Sanaa,
a UNESCO world heritage
site. Rescue teams digging
through the debris pulled the
bodies of six civilians from
under the rubble.
The bombing drew swift
condemnation from the
U.N. cultural agency, whose
chief expressed sorrow at
the loss of human life and
the destruction of priceless
architectural heritage.
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millions of the Arab world’s
poorest nation in dire need
of humanitarian assistance in
just about everything — from
fuel to water, food, electricity
and medical supplies — as
civilians are increasingly
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Also, early on Friday,
random shelling killed 12
civilians in the southwestern
city of Taiz, which witnessed
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between rebels and southern
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In the Sanaa airstrikes,
residents initially believed
the warplanes had targeted
a house occupied by a
senior rebel commander, but
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said there were no Shiite
rebels among the victims.
Iraq militias say
they don’t need U.S.
help in Anbar
KESSARRAT, Iraq
(AP) — Ali Ahsan paced
EDFNDQGIRUWKFDUU\LQJDULÀH
more than half his height in
the searing heat as his militia
convoy made a pit stop in the
Anbar desert to rest and pray.
Unlike the rugged men
in fatigues around him, his
prepubescent face has barely
sprung a whisker. Now
that school is out, the petite
14-year-old is spending his
VXPPHUEUHDN¿JKWLQJWKH
Islamic State group with his
father and other members of
Iraq’s Popular Mobilization
Forces, which includes the
Shiite militias.
“I’m here because it’s my
duty,” the stone-faced boy in
blue jeans said, referring to
an edict from Iraq’s highest
Shiite religious authority
last year. “The Popular
Mobilization Forces are
not sectarian forces. They
represent all of Iraq, and I
want to help them liberate
Iraq.”
Despite concerns over
heightened sectarian strife,
Shiite militiamen continue
to pour into Iraq’s Sunni
heartland of Anbar province
with the initial hope of
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major Iraqi city to fall to the
Islamic State group last year.
As the U.S. prepares
to send an additional 450
personnel to Iraq, the
Iranian-backed militias say
that coalition assistance
only hurts their efforts,
contradicting statements by
the Iraqi government that
more support is needed.
P L AT T S B U R G H ,
N.Y. (AP) — A worker
at an upstate New York
maximum-security prison
was arraigned Friday night
on charges she helped two
convicted killers escape last
weekend.
Prison tailor
shop instructor
Joyce Mitchell,
51, was arraigned
on the felony
charge
of
promoting prison
contraband and
misdemeanor
count of criminal Mitchell
facilitation. Her
lawyer,
Keith
Bruno, entered a not guilty
plea on her behalf.
Mitchell is accused of
befriending inmates David
Sweat and Richard Matt
at the Clinton Correctional
Facility in Dannemora and
giving them contraband.
She entered the court-
room with her hands cuffed
in front of her, clad in jeans
and a green top and looking
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She was ordered held in jail
on $100,000 cash bail or
$200,000 bond on felony
count and is due back in
court Monday morning.
District
Attorney
Andrew Wylie said earlier
the contraband didn’t
include power tools used
by the men as
they cut holes in
their cell walls
and a steam pipe
to escape through
a manhole last
weekend.
Wylie would
not elaborate on
the charges Friday
as more than 800
law enforcement
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to search for the escapees,
concentrating in a rural
area around the prison in
the Adirondacks near the
Canadian border. Earlier
residents reported seeing
two men jumping a stone
wall outside Dannemora.
“We’re coming for you,
and we will not stop until
you are caught,” state police
Maj. Charles Guess said in
addressing the escapees as
he headed a news confer-
ence after Mitchell’s arrest.
California orders large
water cuts for farmers
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
(AP) — As California
grapples with a relentless
drought, state regulators on
Friday ordered farmers and
others who hold some of
the strongest water rights in
the state to stop all pumping
from three major water-
ways in one of country’s
prime farm regions.
The order involving
record cuts by senior
water rights holders in the
Sacramento, San Joaquin
and
delta
watersheds
followed mandatory water
curtailment earlier this year
to cities and towns and to
farmers with less iron-clad
water rights.
The waterways targeted
Friday in the order by the
State Water Resources
Control Board provide
water to farms and cities in
the agricultural-rich Central
Valley and beyond.
Economists and agricul-
ture experts say growing of
some crops will shift in the
short-term to regions with
more water, so the water
cuts are expected to have
little immediate impact on
food prices.
The curtailment order
applies to 114 entities —
including individual land-
owners and water districts
serving farmers and small
communities — with
claims dating back to 1914
or before.
It will force thousands
of water users in the state
to tap groundwater, buy
water at rising costs, use
previously stored water, or
go dry.
“It’s going to be a
different story for each
one of them, and a struggle
for all of them,” Thomas
Howard,
executive
director of the water board,
acknowledged.
There are several thou-
sand senior rights holders
who are the last to have
their water rights curtailed
in times of scarcity.
The people and entities
who were cut off on Friday
DUHWKH¿UVWRIPDQ\VHQLRU
right holders who will see
curtailments in the coming
weeks.
“ We wish you a
Great Summer! ”
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