WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), issued the following statement today after President Obama sent Congress a Statement of Administrative Action regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership:

“Our fears are realized. President Obama has now officially given notice that he will work to pass his monumental Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement during the lame-duck session of Congress after the election. Just as he advised Russia in 2012 that he would have ‘more flexibility’ after his last election, President Obama knows that the only chance he has of passing the TPP is during this short window. His determination flies in the face of the clear will of the American people, as demonstrated in the primaries.

A lame-duck session is just the situation to sneak an unpopular bill through, and if the TPP is successful, other huge trade agreements are on track to follow.  Our nation is about to see once again how powerful forces work overtime to advance a globalist agenda that the people oppose.

While President Obama suggests that an American rejection of TPP is tantamount to a complete withdrawal from the global economy, he is badly mistaken. We are now and will continue to be engaged in trade. That will not change. But Americans know these agreements have allowed trade practices that unfairly close manufacturing plants, costing millions of high paying jobs. Our people are hurting. We cannot afford to lose a single job because of a bad trade deal.

The TPP permanently alters the landscape. The 5,554-page accord, disguised as a simple trade agreement, commits the American people to an international commission with the power to act around Congress. It allows 12 nations, some with less than 1 percent of the GDP of the United States, an equal vote in the TPP Commission. Actions by this commission separate the American people from the policy decisions that affect their lives. The TPP Commission is a direct threat to representative democracy and accountability.

This is why the voters are in rebellion, at home and in Europe. In primary after primary, the vote totals reflected a firm rejection of President Obama’s globalist agenda. The American people have heeded the warning from our friends in England. They want to keep policy choices close to home, made by people accountable to them, not offshore those decisions to an unelected international commission.

But President Obama does not care what the good people of this nation want. He arrogantly thinks he knows best. If he could pass it with his ‘pen and phone,’ he surely would. 

The proposed TPP agreement cannot be fixed by a few cosmetic changes. It cannot be patched and saved. The American people are on to that trick. The TPP is a failed agreement. It must be rejected.”