Trade Adjustment Assistance
Act. Does the President have a position on that particular
configuration that the Democrats are proposing which does, in fact,
expand the program rather significantly?
MR. FLEISCHER: I think it's fair to say it's not exactly
clear what provisions, when you get into the detail level, will be
there as the Senate takes up trade promotion authority. This
is legislation the President is committed to. He wants to
work very closely with Senate Democrats and Republicans so that trade
promotion authority can be signed into law.
The Senate has historically been a supporter of trade promotion
authority. In a reversal, the House, which had previously
been against it, has now voted for it. On this one other
issue that the House has not taken action on, the President is going to
work with the Senate so the Senate can do what the House has
done. On the specifics of it, I think it's just too
soon. We'll have to see exactly what the details are.
Q It's pretty clear then that trade
promotion authority or fast track will not be passed by the time the
President heads south for Central America where trade issues are going
to be a prominent part of the agenda. Is that going to be a problem
for the President in terms of the credibility and the kinds of things
that he will be --
MR. FLEISCHER: The President has been calling on the
Senate to pass trade promotion authority for months, and the President
does not control the timing or the calendar in the
Senate. So I can't speak to that. That's a question that
the Senate leadership will need to address. The President
would have liked to have had it done yesterday. But he
understands there's timing issues in the senate. He'll work
with the Senate. That's all he can do.
Q He's not going to try to goose them into
moving more quickly?
MR. FLEISCHER: Again, the timing is up to the
Senate. The President would like to have it done before the
trip. I don't know if that's possible or not. But
the President, most importantly, wants to have it done for America's
workers.
Q Quick question. Does the
administration believe that the Macedonian government, as it claims,
has broken up an al Qaeda ring of non-Balkan terrorists who were
planning to carry out attacks against U.S. interests in the Balkans?
MR. FLEISCHER: Let me take a look into that and see if
there's anything I can get you on it. And, if so, I'll post
it.
Q One last one, on Pickering, one of the
subtexts of the conversation in the Senate is because the President won
elections so narrowly, he is disqualified, essentially, from nominating
judges who cannot obtain a broad -- a more broad
consensus support than what you've talked about, the narrow bipartisan
consensus that Judge Pickering would receive now. Would you
respond generally to that attitude from Senate Democrats and how it
shapes not only circuit and appellate court justices, but could very
well influence Supreme Court nominees?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, I think there's no precedent for
that idea. There's nothing in the Constitution, nothing in the statute
that supports that. That would suggest that, in 1984, the
Senate and the House should have done everything Ronald Reagan told
them to do because he won in a 49-state landslide and that's not the
way our system is built.
Q Thank you.
END 1:06
P.M. EST