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Senate Passes "Fast Track" Legislation 60-38

posted by takyon on Wednesday June 24 2015, @10:00PM   
from the fast-news dept.

takyon writes:

From EFF:

The U.S. Senate has paved the way for the passage of Fast Track legislation, to give the White House and the U.S. Trade Representative almost unilateral power to negotiate and finalize secret anti-user trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Yesterday a "cloture" vote was held—this was a vote to end debate on Fast Track and break any possibility for a filibuster, and it passed by the minimum votes needed—60 to 37. Today, the Senate voted to pass the legislation itself. TPP proponents only needed 51 votes, a simple majority, to actually pass the bill, and they got it in a 60 to 38 vote. Following months and months of campaigning, Congress has ultimately caved to corporate demands to hand away its own constitutional mandate over trade, and the President is expected to the sign the bill into law as early as tonight or later this week.

Here's the previous story.

• Re:Welp (Score: 3, Informative) by TheRaven on Thursday June 25 2015, @09:05AM

  by TheRaven (270) on Thursday June 25 2015, @09:05AM (#200855) Journal

  I guess you haven't been paying attention to how important the economy is in recent elections. A 0.6% GDP growth is something to shout about in an election. Everyone stopping work for two days would likely cause around a 1% dip in GDP, which is enough to topple governments at the moment.

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  sudo mod me up

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