Brown, D-Ohio, charged that this authority “allows the executive branch to write legislation, avoids any real transparency rules, bypasses normal committee review and guarantees privileged floor votes without amendments.”

The problem is that too many trade negotiations take place away from the eye of the public, Brown said in a speech before the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning nonprofit organization in Washington. More important, he said, “our trade policy is not working.”

“We need to strengthen Congress’ role in the negotiating process,” Brown said. “We need to eliminate the secrecy of fast track,” adding that “we need to make the process more open to the public.”