[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 166 (Tuesday, December 4, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H8816-H8818]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           OPPOSE FAST TRACK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LYNCH. Mr. Speaker, I am indeed new to this body; but I am by no 
means new to this issue. Prior to the great honor of serving in this 
body as the elected representative of the 9th Congressional District, I 
served as an iron worker for 18 years. I worked in the Quincy shipyard 
just outside of Boston. I worked in the steel mills in Michigan and 
Illinois, worked in United Auto Workers plants in Framingham, 
Massachusetts, and again in Michigan.
  I have seen a lot of those jobs and a lot of those plants where I 
worked at one time disappear. I have seen them relocated. Good, highly 
skilled, well-paying jobs moved mostly to Mexico, but to other 
countries as well, in a race to find the lowest-paid worker and the 
least-strong labor standards and environmental standards.
  First of all, I want to congratulate the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. 
Bonior), as well as the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt) and my 
own predecessor, John Joseph Moakley

[[Page H8817]]

from Massachusetts, for their great work in fighting against this so-
called Fast Track and also against NAFTA, which has served to really 
lower the working standards in some foreign countries that we are now 
dealing with as a result of NAFTA and which we seek to expand through 
this Fast Track legislation.
  The proponents of this bill say that this is dearly tied to our fight 
against terrorism, but that cannot be further from the truth. The truth 
is, however, that Fast Track would do nothing to address America's 
security and economic needs in the wake of September 11. It neither 
rebuilds, nor does it restore the healing that is necessary to occur in 
this country.
  What this does do is create what is in effect a silent auction, and 
what is being auctioned off here is first of all Congress' 
responsibility to deal with foreign trade. The United States 
Constitution says that it requires that Congress shall have the power 
to regulate commerce with foreign Nations, and it also says that it 
shall have the power to make all necessary laws proffered for carrying 
out those powers.
  Fast Track changes all that. We give away our rights. We auction off 
the right to have a lively and open debate and choose instead to allow 
the U.S. Trade Representative to negotiate these deals in secret. It 
should be no surprise that this country has not been well served by 
secret negotiations, and we have proof positive that this is not the 
way to conduct our trade policy. Look at NAFTA. Look at the recent 
round of discussions and the latest ministerial pronouncements as a 
result of the WTO conferences.
  There are no guarantees, no enforcement mechanisms for enforcing our 
labor laws or human rights. There are no mechanisms, no enforcement 
devices that allow us to enforce safety standards for food and for the 
environment.
  What one does see is great protections for multinational 
corporations, no protections for American jobs, and this is simply a 
pattern that we should not follow; we should expand for the sake of 
following what some describe as free trade, which is not free trade at 
all, but it is trade that is dictated by unelected bureaucrats who sit 
in Geneva, Switzerland.
  This bill would cut the Congress out of the process. It would 
eliminate the constitutional obligation that Congress has right now to 
serve the people.
  The American worker should not be forced to compete with auto workers 
making 67 cents an hour in the maquiladoras just over the Mexican 
border. The sons and daughters of America should not be forced to 
compete with slave labor, which Fast Track would allow. The sons and 
daughters of America, our workers, should not have to compete with 
child labor, which Fast Track allows.
  Tonight, as we have our armed services personnel, our proud sons, 
fighting on the ground in Afghanistan to restore and to preserve peace 
at home, we are seeing through this Fast Track legislation the 
derogation of the very powers that they seek to protect. I ask my 
colleagues to join me in opposing this Fast Track.
  Now, this body stands to turn its back again on the American working 
men and women by engaging in this Fast-Track procedure.
  I am new to public service, prior to the privilege of my office now, 
I was an ironworker for 18 years; I worked at the Quincy shipyard just 
outside of Boston, Steel Mills in Indiana, and GM plants in Framingham, 
and in Michigan. I've seen those jobs disappear with thousands of 
others because companies could exploit low-wage labor through unfair 
foreign competition. So, as you can see, I am not new to this issue.
  The proponents of this bill, the President, Trade Representative Bob 
Zoellick, and others, seek to link Fast Track to our Nation's 
antiterrorism efforts. At times, claiming that not to support this bill 
is to be less than patriotic.
  The truth is, however, Fast Track would do nothing to address 
America's security and economic needs in the wake of September 11. Fast 
Track neither rebuilds, nor does it restore, it does not heal and it 
will not bring America together. Instead it will work to continue to 
drive America apart--starting with the denial of an open and honest 
debate on this very floor.
  The United States Constitution says Congress shall have the power to 
regulate commerce with foreign nations; and it shall have the power to 
make all necessary laws proper for carrying out those powers.
  Fast Track is a procedural rule that would obligate us to resign our 
responsibilities on behalf of our constituents. It makes us give up our 
rights and responsibilities to the people who sent us here.
  Mr. Speaker, I can without a doubt affirm that my constituents did 
not send me here to give away their rights or allow their voices to be 
silenced.
  And in silence and secret is exactly how these trade negotiations 
will be carried out under Fast Track. U.S. Trade Representatives, who 
are not elected by the people, will be deciding and negotiating in 
closed-door backroom sessions.
  It is a troublesome process we endorse by engaging in this Fast-Track 
procedure and we do not have to look far to see the example of failure 
in that process. We can look to NAFTA.
  We see it in the fact that there are no enforceable labor and 
environmental standards in NAFTA or in the proposed expansion of NAFTA 
to 34 other countries under the Free Trade Area of the Americas Act.
  While the bill raises the issue of labor standards and raises the 
issue of environmental protections, enforcement of these issues is 
recklessly absent.
  It is easy to see, Mr. Speaker, exactly who benefits from an 
extension of NAFTA just by examining the juxtaposition of enforceable 
worker and environmental rights with the rights of investors.
  Most troublesome are the protections that allow corporations to 
impose rules on the global economy that effectively mute competing 
voices and values, while undermining the sovereign capacity of a nation 
to defend its own citizens' broader interests by overriding established 
rights in domestic law.
  We have seen the United States has lost millions of dollars to 
corporations who have successfully sued States under NAFTA's Chapter 11 
bylaws claiming that government efforts to improve environmental 
standards impeded company rights. These are cases not decided in 
Federal court but in a NAFTA tribunal--again--behind closed doors. The 
State of California stands to lose $1 billion to the Methanex Company 
for trying to enforce laws that keep poisonous carcinogens out of 
gasoline.
  In contrast we have seen what NAFTA has done for families, workers 
and the environment.
  The impact of NAFTA on American jobs and worker's rights in member 
nations is astounding. In the 8 years of its existence, Trade 
Adjustment Assistance has tallied 800,000 American workers who have 
lost skilled, well-paid jobs to import competition under NAFTA, the 
threat of factory relocations holds down wages for tens of thousands 
more.
  Those who have lost their jobs are working, however--making a 
fraction of what they used to earn. And their jobs? They're held by 
workers in Maquiladora earning pennies on the dollar with no breaks, no 
rights to organize and no laws to keep children in school and out of 
slave labor. This bill is completely absent of any enforceable 
standard.
  The sons and daughters of America's Greatest Generation should not 
have to compete with child labor and American workers should not have 
to compete with slave labor.
  The American public should not be faced with the risk posed by the 
safety hazards and the emissions impacts of the 4 and half million 
Mexican trucks that travel over the border every year. Not to mention 
the contents of those trucks.
  Less than 2 percent of those trucks--roughly 90,000 are ever 
inspected. Meaning many enter without the proper safety codes and 
emissions standards required by all 50 states.
  Worse yet, the lack of accountability allows produce and meats to 
come into this country that do not meet the regulatory standards of the 
FDA--giving families the unfortunate prospect of not knowing if they're 
eating off the NAFTA diet.
  We have seen examples of that, with the outbreak of Cyclosporiasis in 
seven States--California, Nevada, Maryland, Nebraska, New York, Rhode 
Island, and Texas (FDA source)--from the consumption of Guatemalan 
Raspberries contaminated with parasites. A virus that was allowed into 
this country because the produce did not undergo the FDA process and 
the sanitation process that is given to U.S.-grown produce.
  It's accountability that is missing from these types of trade 
agreements. And without it, we are unable to guarantee protections and 
safeguards for the American worker and the American public.
  At issue is not whether America should be part of the global economy 
but how it should be a part of the global economy. Before riding the 
fast track to more trade agreements, we ought to address the failures 
and pitfalls of prior ones.
  Putting working families first ought to be a major priority 
especially in the wake of thousands of lost jobs during this recession. 
Congress has made bipartisan progress on a whole range of issues since 
then. What we now need to do is to take advantage of this

[[Page H8818]]

high spirit of bipartisanship and put America's trade agreements on the 
right track by preserving Congress's legislative role; require 
negotiators to install provisions that will promote workers' rights, 
and require negotiators to develop trade rules that cannot undercut 
environmental laws.
  We must do whatever we can to recapture the accountability entitled 
to the American people. The first step in doing that is to defeat fast 
track. I urge all of my collogues on both sides of the aisle to vote 
down this bill.

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