The White House intends to trigger a process that would allow President Donald Trump to submit his United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to Congress within 30 days, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing three people with knowledge of the matter. If the administration sends a draft statement of administrative action to lawmakers, the House would have 60 days to send the deal to the Senate and would not be able to make further amendments.
The move threatens to widen the already considerable divide between the administration and Democrats in Congress, most notably the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, who has warned against such a course of action and advised Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer not to send the deal to Congress before Democrats have smoothed out contentious issues, including a demand for Mexico to pass legislation protecting workers' rights.
The US president recently asked Congress Democrats to work on passing the USMCA, only to blast Pelosi over the issue days later, saying that she "doesn't understand" the deal agreed in October last year and that "two weeks to get acquainted with the bill" is too long.
