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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Corporate Donations Bring Fast Track Passage |
Current rating: 0 |
by citizen
(No verified email address) |
27 Jul 2002
Modified: 03 Aug 2002 |
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At 3:30 a.m. last night, the US House of Representatives approved a bill that further undermines the environment and worker security in favor of corporate profit. Public Citizen press release. |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Chris Slevin (202) 454-5140
July 27, 2002 3:00 a.m.
Midsummer Night=s Massacre: Controversial 304-page ATrade@ Bill Few Have Read Is Rammed Through Congress at 3:30 AM
by Razor Thin Margin
Statement of Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizen=s Global Trade Watch:
This travesty of a vote will be remembered as the Midsummer Night=s Massacre, where growing popular concern about corporate-led globalization was shot down in favor of a backwards policy combining corporate managed trade and global deregulation of basic consumer, environmental and other public interest standards.
Over the past decade, public opposition to NAFTA-style trade deals has grown so strong that now the only way to move this policy is to ram through at 3:00 a.m. in the dark of night 304 pages of legislation combining five different trade bills which was unavailable for public or congressional review until hours before the vote.
This Fast Track bill is supposed to set the next five years of U.S. trade and globalization policy. If U.S. negotiators follow the outrageous agenda in this bill, including a 31-nation NAFTA expansion and global deregulation of food safety, accounting, energy and other standards, the resulting agreements would be dead on arrival in Congress and in the court of public opinion.
A tidal wave of hypocrisy ripped through Washington=s wee hours. It has been a tawdry spectacle to watch the GOP House leadership and President Bush ramming through a Atrade@ bill which has as its main agenda promoting massive global corporate deregulation just hours after crowing about passage of new regulations aimed at the corporate crime wave caused by the very sort of deregulation this bill promotes globally.
The trade package included authorization to negotiate a 31-nation Free Trade Area of the Americas NAFTA expansion, new limits on enforcement of labor or environmental standards in trade agreements, a modest Trade Adjustment Assistance program, and an expansion to more nations of the investor-to-state lawsuits of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which allows foreign corporations to challenge domestic regulatory standards before trade tribunals if they limit future expected profits. |
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test |
by tester
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
27 Jul 2002
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test |
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I guess that answers my question... |
by Michael Feltes
mfeltes (nospam) ucimc.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
27 Jul 2002
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*sigh* |
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What's the number of the bill? |
by Michael Feltes
mfeltes (nospam) ucimc.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
27 Jul 2002
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I want to look it up and see what the House signed us up for. |
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FT details - Lipinski :( |
by Peter Miller
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
27 Jul 2002
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Bill Lipinski, a Chicago Democrat, didn't vote. Lipinski is identified as a "friend of labor." Will labor remember this (non) vote?
They rolled Fast Track/Trade Promotion Authority into one big trade bill, so the vote shows up under "Andean Trade Pact," not "Trade Promotion Authority."
Roll call vote:
http://clerkweb.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.exe?year=2002&rollnumber=370
Bill text:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:h.r.03009: |
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Which version of the bill? |
by Michael Feltes
mfeltes (nospam) ucimc.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
27 Jul 2002
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There are 7 versions of the bill listed on the site. Which one was passed by the House? HR3009.EAH? |
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Try this one |
by Peter Miller
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
03 Aug 2002
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http://www.citizen.org/documents/thomasconf.pdf |
