http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/27/us/politics/hard-politicking-behind-democrats-yea-votes-on-trade-bill.html?_r=0
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Officials knew there would be few Democrats open to a trade deal. Since 1979, a Democratic president had not pushed through so-called fast-track authority, which provides international trade deals an up-or-down vote in Congress without amendment or filibuster. With many Democrats suspicious that any trade deal would be a giveaway to big corporations that could lead to substantial job losses among American workers, the administration would be lucky to get more than a handful.
And there was additional pressure from unions and environmental groups who bitterly opposed the trade pact and were threatening Democrats who voted for it. At one Democratic caucus meeting, Representative Peter A. DeFazio of Oregon, an opponent of trade, lashed out at Mr. Froman.
“The politest thing to say is he is dissembling or outright lying,” Mr. DeFazio said later, a charge Mr. Froman attributes to misinformation from the opposition groups.
On the second floor of the West Wing, a “war room” became a second home to people like Mr. Froman; Jeff Zients, the director of the National Economic Council; Labor Secretary Tom Perez; and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker. Slowly, they had assembled 28 pro-trade Democrats in the House and 14 in the Senate, though one of them would drop away. The Senate had passed the trade authority bill, and a worker assistance measure.
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