WASHINGTON (PAI) - Congress yielded to pressure from the business community and the Bush Administration and gave final approval to fast-track trade authority for the president.

The key vote came in the U.S. House at 3:30 a.m. on July 27, when fast-track 
passed 215-212. The GOP overwhelmingly supported fast track in July (190-27) and Democrats overwhelmingly opposed it (25-183).

The Senate passed fast-track on Aug. 1, 64-34, even after congressional 
negotiators dumped a key pro-worker section in the Senate's original version 
of fast-track. That provision ordered separate votes on any trade treaty 
sections that overrode U.S. trade laws, especially laws affecting dumping.

Fast-track lets President Bush send future trade treaties to Congress for up-or-down, all-or-nothing votes, without amendments and without provisions for labor rights. The Senate sweetened the bill for workers by inserting tax credits to partially pay health care costs of those who lose their jobs due to imports.

But the fast-track votes still left union leaders fuming. AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney called the Senate's vote "shameful" for ducking the opportunity "to fix trade deals to make them work for working people."

And he vowed that each representative "who voted to put jobs on a fast track 
to nations where corporations routinely exploit workers' rights" will be held accountable in November.