Date: 2001-12-06
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I rise in opposition to this legislation. Ladies and Gentlemen. Trade Promotion Authority is being sold to Americans as a few different things. The Bush Administration hascalled todays vote an act of patriotism. now more necessary than ever. House Republican leaders. in a suspicious midnight conversion. are now feverishly promising gifts to its critics in return for their support. Well folks. you can wrap this vote up in red. white and blue. You can tie it with a bow and put it under the tree. But either way. this trade bill is neither patriotic nor a gift. It is a dagger into our basic rights and our standard of living. Americans are being asked to make three sacrifices in exchange for President Bushs trade policy. They are being asked to give up their middleclass lifestyle. their environmental concerns. and their public health. For all those Americans who think that sounds like a raw dealand they are rightI urge my colleagues to vote a resounding "no" on this very bad trade deal. When NAFTA was passed in 1993. its supporters promised nothing but blue skies for hardworking American . Using fasttrack authority. President Clinton hurdled the bill through Congress without a truly meaningful debate in Congress on the effects of such a trade agreement. Millions of Americans have paid a high price for that lack of candor eight years ago. A recent report shows that 3 million actual and potential jobs disappeared from the American economy between 1994 and 2000 due to NAFTA and the accelerated trade deficits it caused. In my home State of California. over 300.000 manufacturing jobs--good jobs. wellpaying jobscrossed the border during the last 6 years. The economic surge and booming stock market of the 1990s masked a harsh reality for millions of American workersfor them. NAFTA has meant nothing more than a pink slip. Despite this. President Bush and others in Congress would expand NAFTA further. If this bill passes. it would allow the Administration to eventually spread NAFTAs misery to over 30 other nations in our hemisphere and further exacerbate job losses in our own country. Americas workers had hoped for a different kind of generosity from the American govemment. After losing their jobs to NAFTA a few years ago. they waited for training programs. In the wake of September 11. they waited for help that instead went to corporations. And they are waiting still. listening to empty promises that TPA will help bring back their jobs. In the last day. realizing that they are perilously close to losing this vote on fast track. Republican leaders have suddenly become concerned about the needs of Americas working men and women. They are now promising more trade adjustment assistance. for example. That would be nice. But their bill does not guarantee more trade adjustment assistance. it just authorizes it. Weve been there before. Their bill continue to fail to address the deeper pitfalls that fast track poses for working families. Fast Track also poses a serious threat to the environment. Frankly. it is insulting to my colleagues and all Americans when fast track proponents claim that their bill includes strong language that adequately addresses environmental concerns. One look at NAFTA shows why we should be terrified at extending current trade rules to future agreements. Chapter 11. a provision intended to protect multinational corporations from their host states. has been abused by corporations that refuse to be bound by lawfully decided and publicly supported environmental regulations. California was one of the first states to run into the chapter 11 problem when it tried to protect its environment from the harmful effects of MTBE. When California halted the use of the gasoline additive. a Canadian corporation called Methanex sued the United States under NAFTAs chapter 11 for almost one billion dollars because of lost revenue it said it would incur from Californias decision to protect its environment. Luckily. however. America remains a democracy where important environmental decisions are reached in a fair. open manner. Consider this frightening. fast track reality: If foreign companies operating in the U.S. dont want to play by our rules. they get their cases decided before a secret tribunal accountable to no one. This lack of democracy doesnt bother the administration. The environment has become a defendant without rights. Rights are reserved for multinational corporations. Like pharmaceutical companies. for example. According to the Bush administration. demanding higher labor standards in our trade agreements is an imposition of values. On the other hand. when we force other countries to rigidly adhere to our own intellectual property laws. this is sound policy. A principal negotiating objective in this bill is to achieve the elimination of. "price controls and reference pricing which deny full market access for United States products". I dont think such a narrowminded. marketdriven approach is justifiable in the face of an HIV/AIDS pandemic that has decimated much of Africa. Since the horrible events of September 11. public health experts have warned that our country must reduce its vulnerability to potential- biological and chemical terrorism. The American Public Health Association doesnt support this bill because it represents a risk to the safety of Americas food supply. Let me quote Dr. Mohammad Akhter. Executive Director of the American Public Health Association: With our system of imported food safety so flimsy. the last thing we need is an executive mandate for more porous borders. Executive mandate is exactly what this bill is. It stomps on the constitutional authority granted to Congress over international commerce. On these grounds alone. this bill is unconstitutional. But add to that criticism the hostility that this bill shows toward labor rights. environmental protection and public health. and you have a bill that is indefensible and should be voted down here today. A vote against fast track is a vote to defend the rights H8996 Co and liberties that we hold so dear. It is a vote to support working men and women in America. It is a vote to protect our environment. our public health and our values.