My Congressman, Jared Polis, wrote me in support of a replacing the "Fast Track" trade promotion authority with something called "Smart Track." He says this is a great improvement.
Polis describes the "Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act" (or Smart Track) as follows:
"Under this Smart Track procedure, for the first time, Congress will have the ability to remove any planned "up-or-down" vote if the Administration does not meet strict negotiating objectives on labor and the environment, or if the Administration does not properly consult with Congress. Any member could offer a disapproval resolution at any time, and the committees of jurisdiction would have an extra check on any trade bill before it moved to the House or Senate floor. In practice, the effect of this procedure is simple: it stops bad deals from getting through Congress."
Polis says "Smart Track also includes a number of important measures for ensuring that Congress and the general public play a proper role in trade legislation. For the first time in law, Smart Track would require all completed trade agreements to be public for 60 days before signing. Combined with Congressional action, trade agreements would be public for approximately 4-6 months before possibly becoming law, with multiple "checks" along the way."
However, this Smart Track measure still means that all negotiations would be OVER before the public examination period begins, and thus the public examination is moot in affecting the content of the agreement. At that point, only an up-or-down vote would be possible, and the outcry against it (if any) would have only 60 days to be organized and mounted. The TPP is thousands of pages of minutiae, and only 60 days to analyze it?
See more below the orange squiggle:
Polis also equates "Congressional action" (meaning the whole examination and approval process in Congress, I presume) with being made "public." However, unless the rules change, the general public will remain EXCLUDED from examining the TPP terms and only Congress will be able to see them before the vote. Some terms will not be made public for 4 YEARS AFTER(!) passage of the TPP. This is NOT a "public examination" by any stretch of the imagination. How can we advise our representatives about how we view the treaty before the crucial vote, if we aren't allowed to know the terms?
This new procedure is insufficient compared to making the full text public NOW, and allowing full discussion by the general public as well as Congress, while the deal is still being formulated, so that the most egregious aspects can be modified or removed before being presented to Congress.
Trade agreements should deal with trade, not with enabling foreign corporations or governments to interfere with internal U.S./state/local laws and regulations. The TPP vastly oversteps the line that separates proper trade agreements from a treaty that gives away our sovereignty and control of our land, our air, and our lives.
It has been observed that if it were made public, the TPP would never be accepted or passed, and that is why it has been kept secret. If the terms were truly in the best interests of most Americans, don't you suppose the authors would be trumpeting those terms to the skies, instead of hiding them behind a cloak of secrecy?
The Congress is our main hope in bringing the real nature of the TPP out into the sunshine where we can all evaluate it. We can only hope that the thousands of constituents who oppose TPP will be heard over the noise created by the money being dumped on Congress by the multi-national corporations who are writing and hiding this horrible trade agreement.
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Full text of Rep. Polis' letter 4/29/15:
From: "Representative Jared Polis"
To: cosmkos
Date: 29 Apr 2015 17:11:12 -0400
Subject: Stopping Fast Track
Representative Jared Polis
Dear Friend:
I wanted to share with you some exciting information about the new bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) bill, which, if passed, will help end the "Fast Track" era of unaccountable trade negotiations and replace it with a "Smart Track" approach composed of improved transparency, accountability, and Congressional oversight.
Congress has for many decades adopted procedures directing the President with regard to Congressional priorities in talks with other countries. This authority, known as Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), has been granted to every president since FDR (except for Nixon). It is the main way that members of Congress can formally influence a President's trade agenda, as well as force additional transparency and accountability on the executive branch.
While the basic concept behind TPA is to instruct the President with Congressional goals for the negotiations, the exact manner in which Congress has chosen to exercise our authority has changed. In recent years, TPA has become synonymous with the term "Fast Track." "Fast Track" procedure stated that in exchange for meeting (often weak) negotiating objectives, Congress would speed trade legislation through with minimal debate and only an up-or-down vote.
Due to immense public pressure from civil society groups, including labor and environmental advocates, members of Congress, and the general public, the flawed concept of "fast tracking" trade deals has finally fallen by the wayside, as demonstrated by the introduction on April 17th of the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act. This bill would provide instructions for the President on a number of items, including the TPP, the European trade deal known as TTIP, the Trade in Services Agreement, and the World Trade Organization Doha Round, but most importantly, it would change the way trade policy is considered in the United States Congress.
I personally expressed numerous concerns about the "Fast Track" process to leading members of the committees that have jurisdiction over trade policy in a number of public letters as well as private meetings. In this new legislation, replacing the "Fast Trackâ" process is an innovative procedure known as "Smart Track," an idea first proposed by the progressive champion Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR).
Under this Smart Track procedure, for the first time, Congress will have the ability to remove any planned "up-or-down" vote if the Administration does not meet strict negotiating objectives on labor and the environment, or if the Administration does not properly consult with Congress. Any member could offer a disapproval resolution at any time, and the committees of jurisdiction would have an extra check on any trade bill before it moved to the House or Senate floor. In practice, the effect of this procedure is simple: it stops bad deals from getting through Congress.
Smart Track also includes a number of important measures for ensuring that Congress and the general public play a proper role in trade legislation. For the first time in law, Smart Track would require all completed trade agreements to be public for 60 days before signing. Combined with Congressional action, trade agreements would be public for approximately 4-6 months before possibly becoming law, with multiple "checks" along the way.
To me, this is the clearest sign yet that Fast Track is behind us. If Smart Track doesn't pass, and a trade deal is presented for Congressional approval or rejection, we might have as little as 24 hours to read thousands of pages!
Smart Track makes a number of other improvements as well. For the first time, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) will be required to share all classified text of any ongoing agreements with all members of Congress and their advisors with security clearances at any point during negotiations. Smart Track would create an Office of Transparency within the USTR so that practices on how to best open negotiations are shared between Congress and the Administration.
And for the first time, Smart Track creates new negotiating objectives that recognize the importance of human rights and make this issue a core negotiating objective of any foreign trade agreement. This negotiating objective sits alongside the strongest-ever objectives in labor and the environment, as well as new language dealing with foreign currency manipulation.
I believe this new Smart Track approach represents a strong step in the right direction for developing trade policy that protects American workers and the environment, while also beginning the process of opening foreign markets that will help small businesses in Colorado succeed. As this legislation moves forward and is debated in the committees of jurisdiction, and then on the House and Senate floors, I will keep your thoughts and concerns in mind. I will be working to ensure that any bill protects jobs in Colorado, promotes strong labor and environmental policies, reduces barriers to foreign markets, and ensures a free and open internet that will help 21st-century businesses to succeed.
Yours truly,
Jared Polis
Representative
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