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<P>Democrats in the House and Senate have complained for years about the secrecy
standards the Obama administration has applied to the TPP, forcing members to
jump over hurdles to see negotiation texts, and blocking staffer involvement. In
2012, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) <A
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/23/trans-pacific-partnership-ron-wyden_n_1540984.html"
target=_hplink>complained</A> that corporate lobbyists were given easy
access while his office was being stymied, and even introduced protest
legislation requiring more congressional input.</P>
<P>The issue came to a head Thursday in two ways. In one case, Obama’s new
nominee for China ambassador, <FONT size=4>Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) - <FONT
size=3><FONT size=2>who chaired the Healthcare Committee back in 2010 where only
corporate lobbyists from the health insurance industry were allowed to
testify and ordered the arrest of over 100 single payer medicare for
all activists when they attempted to testify</FONT>,</FONT> </FONT>angered
his party by introducing fast-track trade legislation backed by the White House.
The bill would ease the passage of the TPP and is cosponsored by Sen. Orrin
Hatch (R-Utah) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.).
But most Democrats oppose the bill, and ultimately, Baucus and the
administration introduced the legislation <A
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/09/trans-pacific-partnership-obama-boehner_n_4570837.html"
target=_hplink>without a House Democratic co-sponsor</A> – a public
embarrassment </P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>