President Barack Obama collided politically with his own party on Tuesday when Senate Democrats stalled consideration of a trade measure that would give the administration greater authority to negotiate more freely with other countries.

The Senate vote was a sharp blow to the president’s efforts to win approval for a new Asia-Pacific trade bill that has emerged as a top agenda item for Obama. Only one Democratic senator, Tom Carper of Delaware, voted with the president.

Administration officials and Republican leaders immediately said they would bring a measure back to the Senate floor.

But the setback highlighted the president’s failure so far to convince Democratic lawmakers, labor union leaders and environmental groups that the 12-nation trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership would help the U.S. economy. Obama has argued that the pact would open markets, promote better labor conditions abroad, and protect endangered species and the environment.

Obama has asked Congress to give him “fast track” trade authority, or trade promotion authority, as it is formally called. But a procedural motion to open up debate of the fast track legislation failed by a 52 to 45 vote, falling short of the 60 votes needed to begin consideration.

Both Maine senators said they have reservations about the legislation, but they split over whether to allow further debate. Independent Sen. Angus King voted with most Democrats against it.

“Mainers know all-too-well the difficulty and hardship of competing on a playing field that’s tilted against them and have felt all-too-personally the sting of job losses resulting from lop-sided trade agreements,” he said in a statement. “Giving the president the authority to fast-track an agreement before Congress has even had the opportunity to review and understand what’s in it would effectively stifle the voices of those who it will impact the most, and that’s not fair.”

Republican Sen. Susan Collins said her vote to allow further debate does not mean she will vote for passage.

“I voted for the motion to begin debate today because the legislation included an extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance (which reduces the impact of imports on American workers) which expired at the end of 2014,” she said in a statement.

“I am especially concerned about Maine’s shoemaking jobs, some of which could be jeopardized by TPP …” she said. “Notwithstanding the vote today, unless it differs substantially from where it appears to be heading, I will very likely oppose TPP.”

Ahead of the vote, White House press secretary Josh Earnest played down crumbling support for the legislation as merely a “procedural snafu” that could be worked out in the coming days.

But in the Senate, the trade accord has sparked a Democratic revolt and laid bare a spat between Obama and liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. And it has embittered labor union leaders who feel they helped elect Obama and have received little for their efforts.

Moreover, Senate Democrats – including the handful who have supported Obama’s trade push – said they were not inclined to move forward with debate unless Republican leaders provided assurances that related pieces of legislation would move in tandem.

That group included Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who negotiated the trade package with top Republicans in the House and Senate and who has been a rare ally of Obama’s trade agenda inside the president’s party.

“Until there is a path to get all four bills passed,” Wyden said, “we will – certainly most of us – have to vote no.”

As the vote was faltering, the bloc of Democrats willing to support the trade legislation was summoned to the White House for a meeting with Obama and top deputies to try to forge a compromise, according to congressional and administration officials. But it was too late.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday that Republicans were willing to attach “trade adjustment assistance” – which would provide funding authority for worker assistance programs – to the fast-track bill. But he made no pledge to include a trade enforcement bill – which would, among other things, take aim at alleged Chinese currency manipulation and is opposed by the administration – or a fourth bill concerning trade with Africa.

McConnell said those provisions could be attached by amendment to the bills under consideration.

“We want to pass this and get this to the president’s desk,” he said. “It’s the Democrats who are standing in the way …”

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, one of the Senate’s fiercest opponents of free trade, said late Monday that the vote to proceed would fail unless Republicans committed to take up the related bills.

“It’s a betrayal of workers and small business in our communities to pass fast track, to put it on the president’s desk without enforcement . . . and without helping workers,” Brown said.

But Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Monday that there was “no compromise that can be reached that is going to link all four bills together.”

Hatch, who for months negotiated with Wyden, the committee’s top Democrat, over the trade legislation, betrayed frustration at the latest Democratic demands.

Moving all four trade bills in tandem, he said Tuesday, is “not what we agreed to … and it’s strange to me that they would change their commitments at the last minute.”

The challenge for Obama is not convincing anti-trade hard-liners like Brown but rather convincing a core group of pro-trade Democrats, such as Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., to back trade promotion authority. TPA gives the president the power to negotiate an international deal that Congress can either approve or reject, but not modify.

“I don’t think today’s vote is a death knell for TPA,” Coons said. “But it is a very strong warning shot … that without worker protections, without enforcement provisions, they will likely not move forward.”

McConnell was the only Republican to vote against proceeding, a tactical move allowing him to quickly hold another vote later if circumstances change. Whether that would happen later this week or whether the standoff could extend into a weeklong Memorial Day recess was unclear Tuesday.

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