(Via The Hill) The Senate voted Wednesday to approve fast-track authority, securing a big second-term legislative win for President Obama after a months-long struggle.

The 60-38 Senate vote capped weeks of fighting over the trade bill, which pitted Obama against most of his party — including Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

[…] Fast-track, or trade promotion authority (TPA), will allow the White House to send trade deals to Congress for up-or-down votes. The Senate will not be able to filibuster them, and lawmakers will not have the power to amend them.

The expedited process, which lasts until 2018 and can be extended until 2021, greatly increases Obama’s chances of concluding negotiations on the TPP, which is a key goal of the president’s.

Fast-track stumbled twice before its final approval, and the struggles to move it through the House and Senate likely made the victory on Wednesday even sweeter.

“We had plenty of bumps along the road. Frankly, a few big potholes too,” McConnell said before the final vote. “But we worked across the aisle to get through all of them. That’s an example of a new Congress that’s back to work for the American people.”

The Senate is scheduled to vote later Wednesday to end debate on and pass a trailer bill that includes trade preferences for African nations and a workers assistance program known as Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA).

Senators will also vote on a motion to go to a conference with the House to resolve differences over customs and enforcement legislation passed by each chamber. That bill is a high priority of Democrats who view it as essential to enforcing trade rules.

Obama’s trade agenda almost ended up in a ditch earlier this month when House Democrats defeated TAA, which Senate Democrats had insisted move along with fast-track.

The House action unexpectedly kicked the trade debate back to the Senate, to the chagrin of pro-trade Democrats in the upper chamber who thought they had finished with the contentious issue.

A group of 14 swing Democrats came under heavy pressure from unions to oppose fast-track after it became uncoupled from TAA. Labor officials argued that GOP leaders could not be trusted to get the worker assistance package through the House.

But McConnell and Boehner assured their Democratic partners that all four pieces of Obama’s trade agenda, including the customs bill favored by Democrats and a package of trade preferences for African nations, would pass. (read more)