[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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