[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12195]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       TIME TO RENEGOTIATE CAFTA

  (Mr. BROWN of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, the administration, desperate after 
a series of failed attempts to gin up support for the Central America 
Free Trade Agreement, now has resorted to making all sorts of fantastic 
promises: bridges, highways and other pork projects, and outrageous 
threats.
  The Washington Post reported yesterday that Tom Donohue, President of 
the United States Chamber of Commerce, warned a group of Hill leaders 
and business people, ``If you are going to vote against it, it is going 
to cost you.''
  We know from past experience that if CAFTA comes to the House floor, 
it will come in the middle of the night, when votes are held open, 
threats are made on the House floor and a one-vote margin is secured to 
force through what most of us in Congress agree is bad policy.
  Fast track won by only one vote. The same Mr. Donohue said back then, 
``A one-vote margin is all that we could afford.''
  Madam Speaker, this agreement has languished in Congress for more 
than a year. It is time for the President and Ambassador Portman to 
stop wasting time with toothless, meaningless side deals. It is time to 
renegotiate a better Central American Free Trade Agreement.

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