In an exclusive interview with The Hagstrom Report at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia this week, USDA Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said he believes the fate of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement is up to Congress, not President Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.
Asked how, as a Cabinet officer, he would handle congressional approval of the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement, which President Barack Obama wants and Clinton and Trump oppose, Vilsack said he believes that issue is now really up to Congress.
The “responsibility” for TPP’s fate “now is neither the candidate’s nor to a degree the president’s,” Vilsack said. “It is Congress’s responsibility. They need to make a decision, they need to share with the country what that decision is.”
“It would be one thing if it were in the process of being negotiated,” Vilsack said, but now that the agreement has been completed, members of Congress “should make the call.” In recent months Vilsack has campaigned vigorously for TPP.
