[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 119 (Wednesday, September 10, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H7184-H7185]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM, SECRETARY ALBRIGHT'S REMARKS, AND NAFTA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pappas). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Foley] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, let me first and foremost commend the 
gentleman from Arkansas for his good words on campaign finance reform. 
I join him in that pledge to ban soft money. We did a lot of campaign 
finance reform in the State of Florida. We reduced the size of the 
donation from PAC's and individuals. We cleaned up the process, and we 
made a difference. The American public needs to see real campaign 
finance reform.
  I am particularly impressed the gentleman from Arkansas [Mr. 
Hutchinson] has been so aggressive in this pursuit as a freshman in 
this Congress looking to change the way we do business, and I think it 
is vital. I think the American public distrusts politics, they do not 
like the way the system operates and clearly revelations that have been 
going on in the news media have embarrassed us further. I join him in 
the pursuit of that reform, soft money bans and other things that will 
lend some credibility to the U.S. Congress and what we do here.
  I also want to commend Secretary Madeleine Albright for her diligent 
pursuit of peace in the Middle East for the concerns that we all share 
in this country for peace and stability in the

[[Page H7185]]

Middle East. I am particularly impressed how President Clinton has 
dealt with the situation in Northern Ireland, the new Prime Minister of 
England, Tony Blair, and others who have been so aggressive in working 
on peace, peace in the northern portion of Ireland. It is as a result 
of all parties being brought forward at the table to talk seriously 
about peace in those regions. That will be the only way we will see 
peace in the Middle East, is if the parties join together in a pursuit 
of peace. That includes Yasser Arafat, that includes the Israelis, that 
includes everyone who is in the region, to start absolutely sitting 
down to negotiate peace so we can end the bloodshed, end the terror, 
end the endless killings that are taking place against innocent 
citizens who just want to live life and are being and having their 
lives destroyed.
  I want to commend Secretary Albright for her engagement there and for 
her stern words today to end terrorism. I urge her to continue that 
profile, and I urge the White House to do the same so that we can 
hopefully eliminate the scourge of terrorism in that region of the 
world.
  The President is going to be requesting fast track authority to our 
Latin American neighbors. The Florida delegation met today. We had some 
very serious concerns of granting additional fast track authority to 
any other nation. Let me speak for myself and not the delegation, 
because I have significant concerns about what has happened as a result 
of NAFTA. I can go down the litany of problems we have experienced 
since NAFTA was passed. We can talk about the increase of drugs coming 
across our borders, unchecked because of this new policy of bringing 
all goods in in an expedited fashion.
  Immigration was supposed to benefit from NAFTA. We have not seen 
that. We have seen increased illegal immigration occurring on our 
border States, increased problems with immigration, and the conditions 
really not being lifted, if you will, in Mexico itself.
  Labor standards are another problem. I visited Mexico and I witnessed 
children working in the fields, children working in the packaging 
plants, the spraying of pesticides that are banned in the United 
States. Again our labor standards, our child labor laws that we hold 
dear in this country are being violated in Mexico and the bottom line 
of all that was supposed to be a benefit for the consumers. Somehow 
through international trade we were going to bring about some benefits 
to the consumers, that they would save money. The price of a Mexican 
tomato and an American grown tomato in Florida is equal at the grocery 
store. So we have shifted jobs out of the United States, we have given 
a preferential advantage to the growers in Mexico, they violate what 
would be considered decent American standards on labor, and ultimately 
the consumer pays the same amount of money. Then we are having fear of 
food safety as a result of problems that are being incurred in the 
system of salmonella and other kinds of problems, the problems in the 
berries we have recently witnessed, in the strawberries with our school 
children. Clearly we have a concern.
  Mr. Speaker, I can just tell my colleagues as a Member of Congress 
when we had the big debate on most-favored-nation status for China, the 
White House, the Trade Office and everyone came over to our office 
pledging some changes in policy as it related to introduction of citrus 
to China, a major export for the State of Florida and for the United 
States, California as well. Prior to the vote I was visited by every 
official saying, ``We are going to work strenuously on these problems 
you have raised, Congressman Foley. We want to help solve these 
problems and we're going to make it our priority to see that these 
things are fulfilled.''
  We have the most-favored-nation status vote, I vote for it hoping 
that we are going to see a break of the logjam of problems with the 
most-favored-nation and China will take our citrus to their Nation, we 
can do some common dialog on business pursuits. Not a word since that 
vote. No one has called me to suggest we are making some progress now. 
They do not need my opinion or vote any longer because the vote is 
already cast.
  I can tell my colleagues that the vote is not going to be easy on 
fast tracking with Latin America. I am not going to take side 
agreements or snapback provisions. I want it to be in rule of law that 
we can understand the dynamics by which trade will be negotiated with 
our Latin American neighbors.

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