Fair Trade Contingent Now Formidable Opponent

Ron Kirk made some controversial comments affirming that the Obama Administration has no plans to reopen NAFTA, but would look to address labor and environmental concerns outside of the agreement. Whereupon David Sirota's head exploded. Or actually not - he made some side comments about the virtues of campaign promises, but he also stated that "I still hold out hope - based on the White House's rhetoric - that even though Obama is going back on his promise to reopen NAFTA, there will nonetheless be progressive trade policy changes soon." That's kind of interesting, and I think the optimism comes from the set of allies in Washington for progessive trade policy, moving the country in a new direction:

Trade is emerging as a source of friction between President Obama and congressional Democrats.

Trade critics on Capitol Hill are complaining about comments by Ron Kirk, Obama’s trade representative, who on Monday said Obama does not want to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) after all.

“I’m disappointed,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said of Kirk’s comments. “The president needs to understand there is strong opposition to more-of-the-same trade deals.” Freshman Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) also expressed disappointment.

Kay Hagan's opposition in particular is interesting. She has not taken any high-profile stands as a freshman, to my knowledge, and starting with trade means that she considers it an important issue to her constituents. The President will simply be bound by a very large and strong fair-trade component on Capitol Hill. The Colombia and Panama FTAs will offer a testing ground. Here's what Kirk had to say:

Mr. Kirk, who as mayor of Dallas was known as a strong advocate of free trade, also said the administration planned expeditious reviews of pending trade agreements with Colombia and Panama.

He said that Colombia had made “remarkable progress” in reducing violence — attacks against labor activists have been a key sticking point — but that other issues remained, and he vowed intensive consultation with Congress on the matter.

The Bush administration signed the agreement with Colombia in November 2006. But Congressional Democrats and United States labor groups have said the Uribe government must do more to stop the antilabor violence and hold perpetrators accountable, a position Mr. Obama supported during his campaign.

Regarding Panama, Mr. Kirk said that differences on labor standards, and the question of the country “possibly being a tax haven,” needed resolution.

Certainly, taking these concerns seriously, and putting conditions on these free trade agreements, represents a change in and of itself.

Stay tuned.

It Had To Be Something

I was musing over the curious case of Ron Kirk last week and wondering why there's been no movement on his confirmation in well over two months. Turns out that, yes, there's a tax problem.

(WASHINGTON) Ron Kirk, nominated as U.S. Trade Representative in the Obama administration, owes an estimated $10,000 in back taxes from earlier in the decade and has agreed to make his payments, the Senate Finance Committee said Monday.

The committee said the taxes arise from Kirk's handling of speaking fees that he donated to his alma mater, and for his deduction of the full cost of season tickets to the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team.

So he donated speaking fees directly to Austin College instead of listing them as income and deducting them as a charitable donation. That saved him about $6,000. Then there are the Mavs tickets, which were deducted as a business expense, I'm guessing? He'll pay another $2,000 in tax.

I think we can take away two things from this - wealthy people underpay their taxes, and the tax code is extremely complex and bound to trip up almost everyone.

The Curious Case Of Ron Kirk

Congressional Quarterly has a tracker of Obama's cabinet nominees. With the confirmation of Hilda Solis last night, there are only three unfilled positions. Gary Locke was announced today as the latest nominee for Commerce Secretary, and the Health and Human Services Secretary is to be determined after the withdrawal of Tom Daschle.

And then there's Ron Kirk, the former Mayor of Dallas. He was announced as the choice for US trade representative on December 19.

Since then, he has not been confirmed.

He has not been scheduled for a vote in the Senate Finance Committee.

He has not been scheduled for a HEARING in that committee.

Did everyone forget about him? Is he the Sixteen Candles nominee?

FINALLY, yesterday, committee chair Max Baucus signaled that Kirk's hearing should happen soon, perhaps next week. This is 2 1/2 months after his nomination.

I guess trade isn't much of a priority.

Boyz In The LaHood

So the second Republican has been tapped for President-elect Obama's cabinet - former Illinois Congressman Ray LaHood as Transportation Secretary. In past Administrations, the Transportation Secretary hasn't been that powerful a job and has been a dumping ground for the inevitable token member from the opposite party. Heck, even Bush had Democrat Norman Mineta installed there. However, with the focus on infrastructure improvements being central to Obama's economic recovery platform, and with a lot of that going to rail and transit, DOT might be more important this time around. And it's being handed to a Republican. Of course, there's an open question about how involved LaHood would be on those infrastructure issues, rather than the normal work of DOT, a lot of which involves air travel.

The reception has been mixed. Streetsblog is not impressed.

We've been calling around to Congressional staffers, advocates and insiders to get a better sense of what Obama's appointment of Ray LaHood as transportation secretary means for those pushing for sustainable transport, smart growth, livable streets. While no one is giving up hope on the Obama administration a month before the inauguration, the general consensus is pretty clear. As one insider summed it up: "It's a real read-it-and-weep moment."

The selection of a downstate Illinois Republican with close ties to highway lobby stalwart Caterpillar Inc. is being taken by many as a clear sign that progressive transportation policy is, for now, nowhere near the top of the Obama's agenda.

"Obama still hasn't made the transportation - land use - climate connection," Petra Todorovich, director of Regional Plan Association’s America 2050 program said. "It's clear he's thinking about these things in separate categories." For Todorovich and other advocates, the LaHood pick was the second shoe to drop this week. The first piece of bad news arrived on Monday when Obama trotted out his "green dream team," his appointments to key environmental, energy and climate posts, and the transportation secretary was nowhere to be found.

Friends of the Earth is a little more hopeful:

“Congressman LaHood’s challenge is great. He must ensure U.S. transportation policy supports, rather than undercuts, the Obama administration’s goals on energy and climate change. This means he must work closely with Obama’s nominees for the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency, and with Obama’s new energy and climate czar, Carol Browner.

“While his overall record on energy and environment issues is poor, LaHood has in recent years broken with many in his party to support crucial investments in passenger rail and public transportation, and he is a member of the Congressional Bike Caucus. These are reasons to hope that he may be open to the visionary transportation policy that is needed to move our country forward.

“Friends of the Earth looks forward to working with Congressman LaHood to bring about such a policy.”

I think it's clear that Obama doesn't connect green policy and transportation policy, but it's probably because his green thinking outweighs the thinking on transportation. I don't think LaHood will have much of a power center. He is moderate for a Republican, and he has promoted expanded rail and transit funding in recent years, so I don't think he'll be an obstacle to that either. At some point, however, Streetsblog is right: to truly remake our energy future we need to provide options to alter the way we live - with smart growth, proper land use and livable streets. The era of suburban sprawl cannot continue because our efforts on reining in greenhouse gas emissions will collapse. DOT actually could play a valuable role in setting that policy, but Obama doesn't want to go there. His urban background, however, suggests he understands the importance of it, both for the economy, the environment and quality of life. So we'll see.

...just to round out the cabinet, there's former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk as US Trade Representative. I think it was clear with Xavier Becerra's remarks when he turned down the job that Obama didn't really think trade was a first- or second-order priority, and he didn't connect trade to our larger economic problems, so this may be another area where the pick doesn't entirely matter since that policy will be attacked from a different angle.