Obama Fast-Track Trade Agenda Risk Comes From Democrat

One of the biggest challenges to President Barack Obama’s trade agenda is a senior House Democrat from Michigan with some of the Capitol’s closest ties to organized labor and his home state’s auto industry.

Representative Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said he’ll lead opposition to a bipartisan measure unveiled yesterday to allow Obama to negotiate trade deals that lawmakers can’t amend. A fast-track method for advancing trade agreements, which the administration wants, is key to winning passage of some of the largest trade agreements in history.