[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 66 (Tuesday, May 15, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H2173-H2174]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE CONGRESS IS OPPOSED TO FAST TRACK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, last week the President sent to Congress his 
International Trade Agenda for 2001. Members who were expecting a 
detailed and responsible approach were sorely disappointed.
  First, the President is trying to play the name game. He knows that 
Congress has repeatedly rejected Fast Track, most recently in 1998. He 
also knows that he does not have the support or votes in this Congress 
to pass this misguided approach. So instead of pushing an initiative 
that is bound to fail, he is trying to confuse the public and lead the 
press to believe that this is some kind of novel idea.
  By any other name, Fast Track is Fast Track. Let us get real. Trade 
promotion authority, or TPA as it is being now referred to, is really 
nothing new. Congress rejected it before, and we will do so again. Let 
us remember why we rejected it in the first place.
  Without congressional oversight and input, trade agreements will be 
negotiated by unrepresentative delegates, who were never elected, 
standing up for the rights of international corporations, instead of 
our hardworking constituents, not to mention that a thing called the 
Constitution of the United States grants to Congress the right to

[[Page H2174]]

regulate commerce with foreign nations.
  Our Founding Fathers granted Congress this responsibility as a check 
on the executive branch. It is critical that we do not trade away the 
right to represent our constituents.
  They have sent us here to represent their wishes, not those of only 
international corporations looking to their bottom line. The second 
round of the name game came when President Bush referred to labor and 
environment as core standards.
  If these are core standards, why are they not being included in the 
core text of trade agreements? That would make sense, would it not? 
Instead, the President wants labor rights, get ready for this, to be 
enforced by the U.S. Agency for International Development and 
environmental standards by the World Health Organization. Who is he 
kidding? Not Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to do exactly what they have done 
numerous times before. Reject this name game. Reject Fast Track. Stand 
up for the American people, their standard of living, their right to 
work for a living wage, their right to live in an environment which is 
not polluting, and to use the power of this marketplace to raise living 
standards in other parts of the world, not pull us down to their 
standards. Reject Fast Track. Reject the name game. Reject trade 
promotion authority.

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