[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 40 (Thursday, March 8, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H2332-H2333]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 NO MORE ``BLANK CHECKS'' ON TRADE: FAST TRACK HAS HURT MAINE'S WORKERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Maine (Mr. Allen) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to renewing trade 
promotion authority, also known as fast track.
  Fast track in its current form is nothing more than a blank check for 
the administration to negotiate harmful trade agreements without 
congressional input.
  I voted against the Trade Act of 2002, which granted fast track 
authority to the President. Those of us who opposed such a large grant 
of authority are not surprised that, given a blank check, the Bush 
administration has made regional and bilateral deals to suit narrow 
corporate interests and cut Members of Congress out of the process.
  We need to examine what has happened to hardworking people in my home 
State of Maine since Congress signed that blank check. Between January 
of 2001 and December of last year, Maine lost more than 20,000 
manufacturing jobs. In the same period of time, Maine also lost 8,000 
information sector jobs, in what surely is just the beginning of 
trouble for our service sectors. Only one month ago, Moosehead 
Manufacturing, a furniture-making firm in the towns of Monson and 
Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, employing 120 people, closed its doors as a 
result of competition from China, Mexico, and Brazil. Moosehead 
Manufacturing tried for years to adjust to the pressure of foreign 
competition by changing its products and the structure of its 
workforce, unfortunately, to no avail. Fast track authority allowed the 
administration to continue to make trade deals without adjusting their 
tactics in the least, even as jobs flowed out of my State.
  It isn't clear how lost manufacturing jobs will be replaced in Maine. 
What is clear is that these jobs were casualties not of the inevitable 
forces of globalization, but the abuse of a process that is closed to 
the majority of Americans.
  That is why I voted against fast track, and why I am here to urge my 
colleagues to vote against renewal in anything like the form of the 
current law.
  Mainers who lose their jobs because of global competition often have 
to accept lower wages when they find another job. This week, The 
Washington

[[Page H2333]]

Post reported that nearly half of workers laid off between 2003 and 
2005 who were successful at finding new employment took a pay cut at 
their new jobs. Nearly 30 percent reported earnings losses of 20 
percent or more.
  The same is true for Maine manufacturing sector workers. According to 
a 2002 survey done by the Maine AFL-CIO, laid-off manufacturing workers 
who found new employment lost on average 16 percent of their wages. One 
out of three laid-off workers lost pension benefits.
  Congress is under pressure to renew fast track. The administration 
claims that it cannot negotiate bilateral or multilateral agreements 
without it.
  The administration has had long enough to demonstrate what it will 
and won't do with fast track authority. Our constituents deserve to be 
heard when trade deals are negotiated, not ignored. Rather than write 
another blank check, Members of Congress should take an active part in 
trade negotiations. We must insert accountability into any future 
grants of authority to the executive branch. We must strive to create 
agreements that meet the test of what serves the public good, rather 
than what serves narrow special interests.
  I strongly believe that the choice between agreements that open new 
trade opportunities and agreements that protect workers is a false one. 
We can and must achieve both objectives. We can address health care, 
education, job training, and technological investments to make our 
firms more competitive. We can do more to retrain and cushion the blow 
for workers who lose their jobs as a result of foreign competition, and 
we can rewrite the model for trade agreements so that the interests of 
hardworking Americans are a priority.
  I urge my colleagues to oppose renewal of fast track in its current 
form.

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