Fast track passed the House of Representatives on Dec. 6 with the narrowest of margins, a partisan vote of 215 to 214.
Statistical colleagues, independent of the research and clinical team, registered the patients, conducted the randomisation and informed the research team, who then informed the patients, and if patients were "fast track" passed their details to the clinical team.
The plan is controversial and was opposed by students, faculty and community colleges Chancellor Brice Harris, who argued that it would create something like a fast-track pass for students who can pay.
Fast-track passed, 219 to 211.
However, the original fast-track passed the Senate with only 62 votes, two more than the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster.
Thus, when fast track was passed, the administration agreed that once the President announces his intention to sign it, 90 days must pass before he does so, including 60 days when the heretofore secret agreement will be public for all to read (though you'll really need a trade lawyer to make sense of the language and references to past agreements).
Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, who sponsored the assistance extension legislation and helped get the trade promotion authority bill (formerly called the fast track bill) passed in the Senate, has said that tens of thousands of additional workers will be eligible for benefits under the new law.
When fast track finally passed, it was like a Frankenstein monster: broken apart and messily patched together.
President Obama, the Chamber of Commerce, and other corporate groups are pushing hard for fast track authority to pass these secret trade agreements while effectively bypassing oversight from Congress.
But, if fast track were to pass, our representatives in Congress would barely be able to make a peep in objection and wouldn't be able to raise a pen to change the deal, as Congress' Constitutional right to shape these massive and far reaching trade agreements would disappear.
Last week, after the House overwhelmingly rejected a trade assistance act that was formally tied to the approval of fast track authority it passed a standalone fast track bill by a tiny majority of 219-211.
