Fw: Fast Track Update 5/28/02

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From: " Roach " <JROACH@...>

<Mai-not@...>; <tw-list@...>

Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2002 5:28 PM

Subject: Fast Track Update 5/28/02

MEMORIAL DAY RECESS (5/24/02-6/3/02):

LAST CHANCE TO GET THE 'NO FAST TRACK!' MESSAGE TO YOUR REPS!

Fast Track passed the Senate, as we always knew it would, and you know what

that means - a second House Fast Track vote where we can take back our

stolen 2001 victory!! Before your House Representative votes on Fast Track

again, the whole Congress is home for MEMORIAL DAY RECESS. They MUST hear

from you during this time to let them know just how seriously you want them

to OPPOSE FAST TRACK!

We managed to hold off the Senate vote for MONTHS, thanks to your good

work. Plus, the bill that eventually passed the Senate is different from the

bill that passed the House last year meaning that the two different versions

will have to be merged in a " conference committee. " Then a final merged bill

goes back to the House for a second vote. We've been looking forward to

this opportunity since the Fast Track Bill passed the House by JUST ONE VOTE

last year!

THE SECOND HOUSE VOTE IS OURS TO WIN!

WHY? The mood of Congress has changed since Fast Track scraped through the

House last December. Some Members of Congress want to switch their votes

this time around. There were a few who only voted for Fast Track because

they " wanted to support the wartime President. " There were a few who got

deals and promises in exchange for their votes - deals that haven't panned

out and promises that have been broken. We can and must switch these votes!

And then there are a few more Members who did the right thing and opposed

Fast Track last December, but have gotten so much pressure from the

Administration and from Big Bizness, that they're now thinking of supporting

it. We can and must hold on to these Members!

HOW? Your Representatives must hear from you regularly, continually,

loudly, clearly until the final House vote! Thank them daily if they

opposed Fast Track last year. If they voted for it, make sure they daily

regret it and reconsider. See below for key swing votes in your state to

see how your Representative voted and which Members are priority targets

now.

WHEN? Your Reps will be travelling around the district, in the district

office and doing local events for TEN DAYS during Memorial Day Recess

(5/24/02-6/3/02). NOW is the time to get the NO FAST TRACK message to them

loud and clear!

*****

After Lengthy Senate Schlep, Trade Bill Heads to Messy Conference and an

Uncertain Final House Vote on Whatever Might Emerge

Statement of Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch

Senate final passage of the Fast Track package by a wide margin has been a

foregone conclusion. (Senate trade votes are always lopsided: the '94

Uruguay Round/ WTO vote was 69-31 and the 2000 China PNTR vote was 83-15.)

What is historic about this trade bill is its difficult path in the Senate

and its uncertain fate in the House.

Given that the Senate has always been a well-greased legislative luge run

for trade bills, the four long weeks of debate is unprecedented, to say

nothing of an array of thorny amendments that make up the ingredients for

the conference from hell. Yet, given what looms next, that was the easy

part. Now the package jumps into a swamp of a conference. And then, if a

deal emerges, that final bill faces an uphill battle to obtain a House

majority. Fast Track squeaked by in late 2001 by only one vote after

extraordinary procedural and pork barrel maneuvers.

But first, the conference faces many contentious issues. The Dayton-Craig

trade law amendment was supported by 16 GOP senators among 68 who voted not

to table it. It has broad support among the House rank-and-file and House

Democratic leaders while GOP leaders and the White House seek to remove it.

It would provide a modest speed bump on Senate review of a trade bill if,

and only if, Congress' negotiating objectives on trade law were ignored by

the executive branch. It is seen as a signal of Congress' intent to restore

checks and balances to its delegation of Congress' exclusive constitutional

trade authority.

Meanwhile, as some conservative House GOP members hint that they will return

to their traditional Fast Track opposition, the issues that led House " free

trade " Democrats to oppose Fast Track in 2001 remain. The demise of the

Kerry Amendment, aimed at keeping the NAFTA Chapter 11 model out of future

pacts, means key swing House Democrats will maintain Fast Track opposition.

The demise of the Lieberman Amendment means the so-called " Gramm " language,

which guts the House Fast Track bill's already-pathetic labor and

environmental provisions by removing the enforcement terms and the

obligation of countries to enforce their own labor and environmental laws,

remains in the bill. The White House never did seek the Unemployment

Insurance Reform (including COBRA help for laid-off workers) demanded by New

Democrats last year as a condition for considering Fast Track, and the

special assistance for airline, hospitality and other workers hurt by 9/11

demanded by some of the key swing Democrats also was never forthcoming.

Meanwhile, some key GOP lawmakers are adamant that Senate Trade Adjustment

Assistance provisions be cut back. But many House and Senate members demand

that the Senate definition of " secondary workers, " which cut from TAA

downstream workers (including Teamster truck drivers threatened by NAFTA

open border trucking), be broadened.If a deal emerges from conference, it

faces a second House vote haunted by the ghosts of trade votes past. Last

week, Rep. Tom Sawyer (D-Ohio), a 16-year incumbent, lost a primary to a

26-year-old state assemblyman over one and only one thing: permanent

constituent rage about Sawyer's 1993 pro-NAFTA vote.

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