[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 155 (Friday, November 7, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H10174]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        SAY ``NO'' TO FAST TRACK

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, the President and the Vice President are 
saying, if only they could get a secret vote on fast track it would 
pass by a 3-to-1 margin. It is only the power of big labor that is 
holding Democrats back.
  Nothing could be further from the truth.
  Fast track is still in play only because of the extraordinary 
pressure from the President and the Vice President, the promises of 
projects, fund-raisers and fantasies, the arm-twisting of the 
Republican leaders and the lobby of the dozens of corporate CEO's who 
jetted into town this week in their private jets with their pockets 
stuffed with cash. A vote on fast track is a referendum on a failed 
U.S. trade policy, a policy that exports our jobs, drives down wages 
and destroys the environment.
  The President says it is about a bridge to the 21st century. I have 
seen that bridge from the colonias in Mexico at the American border, a 
bridge across sewage and toxic waste canals, from pallet shacks to 
state-of-the-art, U.S.-owned manufacturing plants where people are paid 
80 cents an hour. That is a bridge the American worker should not be 
forced to cross. Say ``no'' to fast track.

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