John Boehner has declared the China currency bill, which passed the Senate with rare bipartisan support and 63 votes, “dead on arrival” in the House. So Sen. Sherrod Brown has an op ed in Boehner’s home town paper pressuring Boehner to support the bill and explaining how exchange rates are causing Ohio to lose jobs.

While the American Jobs Act failed a cloture vote last night, the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act passed the Senate on a final vote. That bill would allow the Commerce Department to target currency manipulators like China with tariffs proportional to their currency manipulation if industries or unions file complaints. And it would force [...]

It was already clear that the House GOP wanted no part of the China currency manipulation bill working its way through the Senate, but John Boehner clinched it the other day, calling it “pretty dangerous” for lawmakers to crack down on China and their artificial lowering of the price of their exports. The Republican leadership even forced Hal Rogers, the chair of the Appropriations Committee, to take his name off the discharge petition trying to force a vote on the bill to the floor, after he initially signed it. There are currently a majority of co-sponsors for the legislation in the House, but only 175 signers of the petition after Rogers took his name off.

Yesterday, the Senate voted for cloture on a motion to proceed on a bill to discourage China’s currency manipulation, with a bipartisan 79-19 vote. But the White House would rather pursue its “free” trade bills with Columbia, Korea and Panama.

The Senate will vote on a motion to proceed on a bill addressing currency manipulators, targeted mainly at China. Supporters believe the bill would save money, create millions of jobs over time, and has bipartisan support.

Dick Durbin admitted that the Senate doesn’t have the votes to pass the American Jobs Act. Chuck Schumer cautioned that such a statement is premature. Durbin’s right, and it’s merely a statement of political reality. Republicans are not going to agree to anything that will have immediate economic impact to help the President in his re-election.

If you believe, as Ben Bernanke does, that the high unemployment rate represents a national crisis, you have to search for another method beyond Congress, then, to get help and ameliorate the crisis. That means that you have to consider firing up the printing press and solving the demand gap with wads of cash.

Let’s review the bill together! The legislation is an amalgam of two different efforts. A bill co-sponsored by Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) would give unions and industries greater ability to file claims against illegal Chinese trade practices on a case-by-case basis, and would allow the Commerce Department to factor in currency manipulation into any tariffs the US puts up as a result. This would increase duties against Chinese products, which are being effectively subsidized by currency manipulation. The Congressional Budget Office estimated last year that such a measure would collect $125 million in new tariff revenues, but the main impact would be to put political pressure on China to revalue its currency.

The Obama Administration wants Congress to move on the American Jobs Act and “pass the bill,” but Harry Reid wants to postpone consideration for now while the Senate focuses on the China Trade Bill.

Bloomberg asked 34 economists about the American Jobs Act, and by and large they said passage of the bill would prevent a recession.

We have known for years about the dangers of being a trade unionist in Colombia, of the murders of organizers and labor officials. The murders have increased in frequency in the years since the US negotiated a trade deal with Colombia. They are well documented. Now Rich Trumka has sent the President a list of victims.

Speaking of Congress, they may be getting themselves in a position to actually pass those three long-stalled trade agreements The Senate passed a bill providing assistance for workers displaced by trade agreements, but its prospects in the House are uncertain.