Sherrod Brown comments on trade, gas tax, Kasich at Vindy interview today

YOUNGSTOWN

Though the U.S. Senate approved giving the president fast-track trade negotiating authority, Sen. Sherrod Brown, who voted against that bill, said it’s going to be more difficult to get the House to back it.

“I don’t know if it will pass; [President Barack] Obama is hitting the House hard” lobbying for votes, said Brown, a Democrat from Cleveland, during a Friday interview with The Vindicator.

Brown listed several reasons why it could be a struggle including “the hatred of Obama is probably stronger in the House than in the Senate. In the end, they are giving trade-negotiating authority to a president they detest to negotiate with foreign governments.”

The Republican-controlled Senate voted 62-37 on May 22 to give Obama, a Democrat, the authority to negotiate trade deals, with Congress having no power to vote on amendments to those agreements. Obama is concluding negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement with 11 countries, which Brown said is bad for American companies.

The House, also with a Republican majority, could vote on the fast-track bill in the next two weeks, Brown said.

During the 35-minute interview, Brown was asked if he supported raising the federal fuel tax for improvements to roads and bridges, and about the potential presidential candidacy of Gov. John Kasich.

Read what he had to say in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.