Bush Cabinet To Pelosi: Colombia Pact Is Coming

The signs are mounting that the White House will indeed send the Colombia free trade agreement to Congress next week without the blessing of House Democratic leaders.

The most significant signal yet: six cabinet secretaries, including Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Friday announcing that since they failed to reach agreement with her to hold a vote on the trade pact before the August recess, “we will need to transmit the bill in order to assure a vote this year.”

That’s not a new message from the White House, of course. Top officials started the drumbeat before the Easter recess that the trade agreement would be Hill-bound shortly after members returned March 31.

Since the recess ended, rumors have built that the administration plans to send the trade agreement to Congress Tuesday. And the letter from the Bush cabinet reads almost like a heads-up to Pelosi.

A sense of frustration and finality comes through the cabinet secretaries’ words. The letter opens with a reminder that Pelosi stood with Paulson and U.S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab last May “to announce an agreement to restore a bipartisan consensus on trade,” and sets out a detailed case for how the Bush administration has done to more than enough to hold up its end of the bargain.

“Over the past year, we have continued and intensified our efforts to work directly with you and other Members of Congress to identify a path forward for the United State-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement,” the officials wrote. “In addition to the private conversations you have had with several members of the President’s cabinet, the Administration has made broad and comprehensive efforts to reach an agreement with House and Senate leadership on a package to consider and approve the Colombia free trade agreement.”
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