An hour and a half national conference call just ended that included many opponents of TPA "Fast Track" and TPP.
Keep calling Representatives until the vote actually happens! Thank each Representative who will commit to fight TPA "Fast Track". Then call again to make sure position does not change. Mike Quigley {IL-5} is actively helping Boehner-Ryan-Obama pass TPA "Fast Track". Kathleen Rice {NY-4} turned her coat from No to Yes.
- Lori Wallach, Director, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch: News from the absolute authority on what’s going on in D.C. this week—and how we will still win the fight (much depends on you!) The business of having to and voting on Thursday is a big psych-op to pressure Representatives to fall in line to vote for TPA-FastTrack. Boehner & Ryan may test-run for a stampede by having a rule vote to pressure people. We have got to get Pelosi to stop being so quiet in the face of the unprecedented pressure Obama is throwing on everyone. Very tribal tactics are being used: Are you a free trader or a protectionist? Are you with the Chamber of Commerce or are you with the unions? This is a war of attrition. Hair is on fire to get this done before July 4th break. Do POTUS & Boehner and all the rest have the votes? He and they are staggering around asking WTF? What we have done is like David with the slingshot. We gotta keep it up!
- Margaret Flowers, founder, Popular Resistance and the Flush the TPP Campaign: we’re pushing back with increased “people power.” Think and Do What you can do—whether you’re in D.C., or at home on your computer!
- Celeste Drake, Trade and Globalization Policy Specialist, AFL-CIO: the policy implications of all this wrangling, and the possible House Fast Track vote on Thursday are mind-boggling.
- Andrea Miller, Executive Director, People Demanding Action, with an update from insiders tracking the Congressional Progressive Caucus—on who’s likely to turn on us—and vote “yes” on TPA-FastTrack. Remember House Dems. signed a letter but not all progressive caucus members signed (See below the flying orange curlicues). On the TAA, Pelosi is encouraging GOP: find the $700 million someplace other than in Medicare. We must call Representatives --they are under much pressure and we must sustain this pressure on them. Pelosi's strategy is to force a Senate-House conference. Traditional media are the enemy on these issues as they won't report news nor will they let communities of color know the consequences for them if TPA-FastTrack becomes law. Mainstream media is owned by the same big corporations that would reap huge benefits from this deal so they will not tell the nation about the TPP. Unions point out that, in particular, mainstream media are not reporting the devastating impact that a poorly negotiated deal could have on the U.S. textile and automobile industries—and all the jobs that could be lost in the process.
- Emilianne Slaydon, Social Media Director, TPP Media March: updated us on this week’s TPP Tuesday Twitter Storm that will focus on jobs & transparency. Each Tuesday there are 2 #TPP TwitterStorms (see invites below). You can participate in one or both. Here’s how: Follow @TPPMediaMarch on Twitter so you will receive the Storm Link Tweet when it is posted 3 hours before Storm time. This link will comprise the 50 Storm Tweets for the evening for that individual Storm. Each Storm Link will be tweeted SEPARATELY with it’s own Storm Invite. Just cut-n-paste each Storm Tweet to your followers for one hour 9-10pEDT / 6-7pmPT from the list of Storm Tweets. That’s it! Watch for the Storm link! See you then.
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Vote may be Thursday but not set for sure. Obama is trying to out all Democrats to see where they are. Vote might not be until next week. If either TAA or TPA portion fails, the whole bill will fail. Stay on message that TPA-FastTrack is not good for jobs, wages, and communities. This is the voting issue people really care about. 48% of U.S. still do not know about these issues. Boehner & Ryan are so frustrated that they are trying to tell everyone to blame unions for having secret talking points.
Please, please keep calling your Representative to keep up pressure on them to vote NO on TPA-FastTrack.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has been fighting Obama on this tooth-and-nail for more than two years now! She's got to be tired -- there's still spunk in her as we all know from watching how increasingly crazy Obama's attacks on her have become.
AFL-CIO says: We oppose Fast Track because it doesn’t provide the necessary transparency, accountability & oversight to do trade right. Fast track will bring more trade deals that increase corporate power & CEO bonuses while pushing down wages for the rest of us.
To me that is AFL-CIO and Senator Warren echoing each other with deafening reverberation! We are so lucky to have them both handing us stones and repairing our slingshots to lay low Goliath's TPA-FastTrack crushing weight.
Congress has vague language about trade on their action list for this week. They mean TPA-FastTrack, TPP, TTIP-TAFTA, TISA and more when they utter and mumble those vague words about "trade"! There really is a lot more: This week they will try to repeal country of origin labeling for food. Remember on May 20th House Agriculture Committee voted 38-6 to repeal a “country-of-origin” labeling law for beef, pork and poultry Wednesday — just two days after the World Trade Organization ruled against parts of the law. Democratic Rep. Jim Costa [CA-16] was the trail boss in Ag. Cmte. to move H.R. 2393, a bill to amend the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to repeal country of origin labeling requirements with respect to beef, pork, and poultry, and for other purposes. So to add pressure for passage of TPA, the floor vote for this week (maybe Thursday) was suddenly scheduled as part of a Friday afternoon dump on June 5th for H.R. 2393, Country of Origin Labeling Amendments Act of 2015 (COOL) [PDF] [XML] along with the "must read" Report from the Committee on Agriculture together with DISSENTING VIEWS [To accompany H.R. 2393] [PDF] also Added Friday, 6-5-2015.
DISSENTING VIEWS
The purpose of country of origin labeling—to provide information to consumers about the food they eat—has repeatedly been ruled by the WTO to be a legitimate regulatory goal. The challenge for us is to find a way to provide U.S. consumers with the information they have said in numerous surveys that they would like to see on food labels. These surveys include those conducted by leading consumer organizations such as Consumers Union and the Consumer Federation of America. Many other countries have been able to achieve this goal without sanctions. We should not so readily abandon our efforts to provide U.S. consumers with information they have repeatedly said they want.
We agree with the goal of avoiding retaliation under the World Trade Organization (WTO) decision on country of origin labeling, but a repeal of mandatory labeling for beef, pork and poultry is premature. Retaliation is unlikely to begin for many months. In the case of Brazil’s cotton case against the United States, retaliation began 21 months after the WTO upheld the panel ruling on appeal.
Many supporters of a repeal of country of origin labeling have argued that retaliation by Canada and Mexico will result in lost trade opportunities. In fact, we do not know how much the WTO will allow Canada and Mexico to raise tariffs as a result of the decision. The amount will largely depend on how much of the meatpacking industry’s segregation and tracking costs can be attributed to country of origin labeling. In fact, meat-packers already have infrastructure in place to track voluntary marketing attributes such as ‘‘certified Angus,’’ ‘‘grass-fed,’’ ‘‘organic,’’ and USDA grades including ‘‘choice’’ and ‘‘prime.’’ It makes little sense to repeal country of origin labeling when we do not yet know the amount of retaliation that may be permitted.
COLLIN C. PETERSON. RICHARD M. NOLAN.
TIMOTHY J. WALZ. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM.
U.N. is alarmed that TPP will disrupt human rights. TPP includes Malaysia so what is Obama's plan to keep Malaysia in TPP? People want to get an answer on this. There is a customs & enforcement bill in the works and stuff will be stuck in there that would otherwise be a poison pill if the stuff is in TPA. Getting knowledgeable on customs & enforcement bill is thus also critical.
goto http://tradejustice.net/
Obama is throwing the entire weight of government administration at the Members of the House of Representatives.
Black Lives Matter and Color of Change can really help oppose but they don't yet understand what it is to them. There might be 2 black members of Congress in the Progressive Caucus who are for TPA-FastTrack.
Obama can be called out but he is so focused on Congress that we are more effective if we help Congress understand how they are responsible for saving Obama from himself. He has so embarrassed himself that, God Bless him, he really needs help to keep from demolishing his legacy and the House Democrats are the only ones who can achieve that end.
These are all actual links ... get to them when you open
Links for Adam Weissman's Report 6/8/15
Adam is a man who works in the organization Trade Justice
- Unbelievable Audacity: Congress Considers Bill to Repeal COOL As a Result of WTO Ruling Right Before Fast Track Vote!! Outrageous Given that the US Joined the WTO Under Fast Track Rules!
Calendar: http://www.majorityleader.gov/...
Bill: https://www.congress.gov/...
Article: http://citizen.typepad.com/...
- UN High Commissioner on Human Rights on TPP & TTIP: UN experts voice concern over adverse impact of free trade and investment agreements on human rights
(UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 6/2/15)
UN criticizes Obama's big trade deals (Al Jazeera, 6/4/15)
- TISA Leak: TISA: Yet Another Leaked Treaty You’ve Never Heard Of Makes Secret Rules for the Internet (Electronic Frontier Foundation 5/27/15)
Trade in Services Agreement - Press release (Wikileaks, 6/3/15)
Wikileaks Drops Another Damning Trove Of Secret Trade Deal Documents (Huff Post Politics, 6/3/15)
WikiLeaks Strikes Again: Leaked TISA Docs Expose Corporate Plan For Reshaping Global Economy (Common Dreams, 6/3/15)
Another Leaked Trade Agreement, Another Reason to Oppose Fast Track (Huff Post Politics, 6/4/15)
Wikileaks posts 'largest leak of trade negotiations in history' charting progress of TiSA (The Independent, 6/5/15)
The Scariest Trade Deal Nobody’s Talking About Just Suffered A Major Leak (The New Republic 6/4/15)
What We've Learned About the TISA Leaks So Far (Common Dreams, 6/5/15)
- Wednesday Letter Drop on Capitol Hill https://www.facebook.com/...
- Many NY Events This Week http://tradejustice.net/... for details
- Sunday's Call - please invite people to the FB event!
https://www.facebook.com/...
- TradeJustice Newsletter for Week of 6/7/15 http://tradejustice.net/?
page=RiceNewsletter
Dear President Obama:
We write to express our serious concern with the ongoing negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Free Trade Agreement (FTA), a potential agreement of tremendous consequence for our country. Specifically, we remain deeply troubled by the continued lack of adequate congressional consultation in many areas of the proposed pact that deeply implicates Congress’ constitutional and domestic policy authorities.
For some time, members of Congress have urged your administration to engage in broader and deeper consultations with members of the full range of committees of Congress whose jurisdiction touches on the numerous issues being negotiated. Many have raised concerns relating to reports about the agreement’s proposed content. While your Administration’s goal was to sign a TPP FTA at the October 2013 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, we believe that to date the process has failed to provide adequate consultation with Congress.
Such opportunity for input from Congress is critical as the TPP FTA will include binding obligations that touch upon a wide swath of policy matters under the authority of Congress.
Beyond traditional tariff issues, these include policies related to labor, patent and copyright, land use, food, agriculture and product standards, natural resources, the environment, professional licensing, competition, state-owned enterprises and government procurement policies, as well as financial, healthcare, energy, e-commerce, telecommunications and other service sector regulations.
In light of the broad scope of today’s trade agreements, it is even more vital that Congress have a fulsome role in shaping these pacts’ terms. Given our concerns, we will oppose “Fast Track” Trade Promotion Authority or any other mechanism delegating Congress’ constitutional authority over trade policy that continues to exclude us from having a meaningful role in the formative stages of trade agreements and throughout negotiating and approval processes.
Congress, not the Executive Branch, must determine when an agreement meets the objectives Congress sets in the exercise of its Article I-8 exclusive constitutional authority to set the terms of trade. For instance, an agreement that does not specifically meet congressional negotiating objectives must not receive preferential consideration in Congress. A new trade agreement negotiation and approval process that restores a robust role for Congress is essential to achieving U.S. trade agreements that can secure prosperity for the greatest number of Americans, while preserving the vital tenets of American democracy in the era of globalization.
Twentieth Century “Fast Track” is simply not appropriate for 21st Century agreements and must be replaced. The United States cannot afford another trade agreement that replicates the mistakes of the past. We can and must do better.
We are deeply committed to transforming U.S. trade policy into a tool for creating and retaining family-wage jobs in America, safeguarding the environment, maintaining consumer protection and improving the quality of life throughout the country. We look forward to working with you to ensure that Congress and the Executive Branch are working together to meet that critical goal.
Sincerely,
Rosa L. DeLauro
George Miller
Louise M. Slaughter
Nydia M. Velazquez
Bennie G. Thompson
John Conyers, Jr.
Jim McDermott
Nick J. Rahall, II
Robert A. Brady
C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger
Michael H.Michaud
Marcy Kaptur
Linda T. Sanchez
Peter A. DeFazio
Sam Farr
James P McGovern
John F. Tierney
Frederica S. Wilson
Andre Carson
Niki Tsongas
Patrick E. Murphy
Zoe Lofgren
Alcee L. Hastings
Tim Ryan
Michael M. Honda
Betty McCollum
Barbara Lee
Gary C. Peters
Ed Pastor
Henry A. Waxman
Lloyd Doggett
Chellie Pingree
Daniel T. Kildee
Janice D. Schakowsky
Danny K. Davis
Jerrold Nadler
José E. Serrano
Chaka Fattah
Timothy J. Walz
Timothy H. Bishop
John A. Yarmuth
Elijah E. Cummings
Peter Welch
Albio Sires
Steve Israel
Maxine Waters
Loretta Sanchez
Ann McLane Kuster
Yvette D. Clarke
Anna G. Eshoo
Carolyn B. Maloney
Carolyn McCarthy
Cheri Bustos
Bobby L. Rush
Elizabeth H. Esty
Eddie Bernice Johnson
Sanford D. Bishop, Jr.
Daniel Lipinski
Paul Tonko
Eleanor Holmes Norton
Richard M. Nolan
Brad Sherman
Brian Higgins
Carol Shea-Porter
Corrine Brown
John D. Dingell
Donald M. Payne, Jr.
Gene Green
Lois Capps
Jared Huffman
Julia Brownley
William L. Enyart
Michelle Lujan Grisham
Rush Holt
Alan S. Lowenthal
Daniel B. Maffei
Alan Grayson
David Loebsack
Mark Pocan
Terri A. Sewell
Al Green
Grace Meng
Sean Patrick Maloney
Frank Pallone, Jr.
Joyce Beatty
Adam B. Schiff
Judy Chu
Stephen F. Lynch
Keith Ellison
John Lewis
Ben Ray Luján
Emanuel Cleaver
John Garamendi
Peter J. Visclosky
Luis V. Gutiérrez
Michael F. Doyle
David N. Cicilline
Donna F. Edwards
David Scott
Lucille Roybal-Allard
Matthew A. Cartwright
Raúl M. Grijalva
Hakeem S. Jeffries
Marcia L. Fudge
Jackie Speier
Lois Frankel
William R. Keating
Eric Swalwell
James R. Langevin
Robin Kelly
Joseph P. Kennedy
Robert E. Andrews
Steve Cohen
Steven A. Horsford
Gloria Negrete McLeod
Tulsi Gabbard
Ron Barber
Joe Courtney
John P. Sarbanes
Raul Ruiz
Jerry McNerney
Dina Titus
Bill Pascrell, Jr.
James E. Clyburn
Sheila Jackson Lee
Mark Takano
Bruce L. Braley
Ann Kirkpatrick
Karen Bass
Juan Vargas
Janice Hahn
Nita M. Lowey
Eliot L. Engel
Grace F. Napolitano
Gwen Moore
Filemon Vela
Beto O’Rourke
Mike McIntyre
Robert C. "Bobby" Scott
G. K. Butterfield
Theodore E. Deutch
Kyrsten Sinema
William L. Owens
Hank Johnson
Kathy Castor
Collin C. Peterson
Ruben Hinojosa
Allyson Y. Schwartz
Kurt Schrader
Colleen Hanabusa
Scott Peters