Cross posted at the Practical Progressive.
Rep. John Sullivan (R OK-01) has pocketed over $100,000 in campaign donations from Oil and Gas PACs since the last election cycle (2004). This is more than any other sub-sector of industry breakouts. Top PAC contributors are Williams Cos. ($15,500), Valero Energy ($14,000), Chesapeake Energy ($5,000) and of course, Halliburton.
So, it's no surprise that Sullivan voted in July to approve the Oman Free Trade Agreement in one of the closest votes (221-205) on Free Trade Agreements since NAFTA was approved in 1994.
Oman has oil.
Oman is a country on the southeast coast of the Arabian Penninsula. It borders the United Arab Emirates in the northwest, Saudi Arabia in the west, and Yemen in the southwest. It is an absolute monarchy ruled by a Sultan. Its population is the size of Dallas and its economy is the size of Worcester, Mass. Its
labor laws are abominable, but, by no strange co-incidence, oil exports generate 90% of the total national income.
The agreement has been criticized by a number of elected officials and watchdog groups. Many in Congress opposed this deal because it was a NAFTA-CAFTA clone, but by sneaking in security-threatening, politically tone-deaf provisions that give foreign firms the right to drag us to foreign tribunals if we prevent these firms from controlling U.S. port operations, the administration almost lost this vote. Four of the Democrats who supported CAFTA opposed the Oman Free Trade Agreement (OFTA). Only 22 Democrats voted for this deal, with its forced labor and port security problems, while last December a trade agreement slipped through Congress with little public attention. That agreement, the Bahrain FTA, passed 327-95, with 115 Democrats voting yes after Bahrain agreed to bring its labor laws to International Labour Organization standards.
Even Rep. John Murtha echoed the sentiment in a blistering three page indictment of the deal.
I don't think Rep. Sullivan stood up for the best interest of America or Oklahoma, when he voted for this national disgrace.