When President Donald Trump signs his revised North American Free Trade Agreement agreement at the White House on Wednesday, congressional Democrats who played a central role in approving the pact won't be there.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not been invited to the signing ceremony for the trade deal, a spokesperson for her office told CNN Tuesday morning.
And Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat who shepherded the rebranded US-Mexico-Canada agreement to passage despite heightened tensions between the administration and congressional Democrats amid the contentious impeachment inquiry last year, is also not on the guest list. Nor are the other members of the House Democratic USMCA working group, who negotiated with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer for months to obtain changes to the deal.
It is typical for members of both parties to be present when major bipartisan pieces of legislation are signed at public ceremonies.
Neal on Tuesday morning declined to comment on not being invited to the event.
"No, I don't have a reaction," he told CNN as he left a Democratic caucus meeting.
Democrats largely voted for the trade agreement alongside their Republican colleagues when it came to the floor for a vote in December. The deal, which enshrines new auto manufacturing requirements, provisions for the digital economy and labor protections, passed with a vote of 385-41.
