House Democrats to table trade deal

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi said House Democrats plan to change the rules on how Congress handles trade agreements to avoid a vote on a controversial free trade pact with Colombia backed by President Bush.

Bush sent the trade agreement to Congress on Tuesday. Under trade-negotiating rules, Congress must vote on the pact within 90 days and cannot make changes to it.

Pelosi, D-California, said House Democrats will remove the timeline requirement.

The move effectively puts off any congressional consideration of the pact.

Pelosi said she pressed Bush in a phone conversation this week to hold off on sending the agreement to Congress. Democrats have argued that Congress should first take up separate legislation that would help protect American workers who lose their jobs because of the trade deal.

"The president chose not to do that, so we will choose tomorrow to remove the timeline from the Colombia Free Trade Agreement," she said.

Bush said he had decided to force Congress to take up the measure because the "need for this agreement is too urgent; the stakes for our national security are too high to allow this year to end without a vote."

He said the agreement would "advance America's national security interests in a critical region" and "strengthen a courageous ally in our hemisphere," as well as help the U.S. economy. Watch the secretary of state stress the importance of the trade agreement »

The administration signed the agreement almost a year and a half ago and had been working with congressional leaders to schedule a vote on the pact. Watch the U.S. trade rep call for action on the pact »

Pelosi insisted that she is willing to negotiate "in good faith" with the White House on the agreement this year, but she said "that is not possible if the president of the United States is going to usurp the discretion of the speaker of the House to bring a bill to the floor."

She said she told the president that if the bill went to the floor as it stands, "it would lose."

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said that any move to change the rules would be "cheating."

Boehner said in a statement, "Such an action would wreak havoc on our international trade commitments and any future attempts to negotiate any agreement with a foreign nation. What nation would conclude a treaty with the United States knowing that Congress can change the rules of the game after it is negotiated?" E-mail to a friend

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