[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15041]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                VOTE ``NO'' ON OMAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT

  (Mr. MICHAUD asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MICHAUD. Madam Speaker, if we are really serious about national 
security, especially given the bipartisan outrage over the Dubai Ports 
World situation earlier this year, we must reject the Oman Free Trade 
Agreement.
  The Oman agreement allows foreign tribunals to second-guess American 
decisions about who can operate our ports and dictate to us what is in 
our national security interest.
  Simply put, foreign tribunals should not determine what is a security 
threat to the United States. We should. This provision should not be in 
this trade agreement, period.
  It is bad enough that we are asked to support agreements that will 
ship our jobs overseas, that undermine our environment, and ask us to 
stick our head in the sand over serious human rights violations, but it 
is simply outrageous to ask Congress to support legislation that can 
undermine the security of our Nation.
  Whether you consider yourself a free trader or not, I cannot think of 
one Member of Congress who would support weakening our national 
security, and this agreement does that. I urge my colleagues to vote 
``no'' on the Oman Free Trade Agreement.

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