Congresswoman Kaptur Vows To Lead Fight To Deny President Bush 'Fast Track' Authority

CONGRESSWOMAN KAPTUR VOWS TO LEAD FIGHT TO DENY PRESIDENT BUSH ‘FAST TRACK' AUTHORITY

Once again President Bush is asking Congress to abdicate a good measure of its constitutional responsibility for regulating foreign trade by granting him extraordinary power under the guise of "fast track authority."

Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution grants to the legislative branch the power "to regulate commerce with foreign nations."

Fast track is an artifice that emasculates the role of the legislative branch and transfers undue power over international trade to the executive branch. It empowers the executive branch to negotiate and sign international trade agreements without first consulting with the legislative branch. It further hamstrings Congress by imposing a 90-day deadline to vote "up or down" on trade agreements with no opportunity to improve them or mitigate their most harmful provisions through the normal legislative process. I have never understood why we in the Congress do this to ourselves or to the people who elect us to represent them, much less do such a disservice to the wisdom and vision of the Founders.

Let us never forget that "fast track" was the legerdemain by which the Administration rammed the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) through the House. Those of us who were here will never forget: the final vote came after midnight on July 28, 2005 as Tom DeLay held the vote open for 47 minutes.

Fast track was also the vehicle by which President Bush and his allies enacted bilateral trade agreements with Morocco, Bahrain, Singapore, Chile, Oman and Australia.

Fast track has facilitated the failed trade policies of the Bush Administration that have resulted in five consecutive record trade deficits. President Bush has racked up an astounding $3.38 trillion in trade deficits since he was put in office in 2001.

When the December trade figures are announced, it will be official: the 2006 annual trade deficit will have doubled during the tenure of President Bush. We will have seen our nation's annual trade deficit increase during the past six years from $362.7 billion in 2001 to almost $800 billion.

In the nation's heartland, we have seen job losses of epic proportions. We have seen China emerge as a global economic superpower and form with Japan a lethal one-two punch to the jobs, hopes and dreams of Middle America. We have seen vital parts of our manufacturing base disappear. In Ohio and heartland states, we know well what fast track means for our constituents: it means lost jobs and lost industries. It means unemployment and a lower standard of living.

Indeed, if the executive branch were doing a good job of negotiating trade agreements, the United States would not be hemorrhaging jobs and racking up larger and larger trade deficits each succeeding year.

Moreover, Congress has learned the hard way how this President handles extraordinary grants of authority. For evidence, we obviously need to look no farther than the debacle in Iraq. President Bush takes extraordinary grants of authority and then cavalierly transforms them into abuses of power. It would be nothing less than irresponsible for this Congress, knowing what it knows now about how President Bush views the separation of powers, to grant him fast track authority. In short, President Bush has proven that he cannot be trusted with such extraordinary power.

Surely Congress has learned the consequences of ceding its constitutional authority to any Administration, much less an Administration with no more regard for the legislative branch or the rule of law than the Bush Administration. In 2002, the House of Representatives approved fast track by a margin of two votes. The President will soon ask for a renewal of that extraordinary authority, but only 12 of the 25 Democrats who voted for that measure are still Members of Congress. Recently, 39 freshman Members of the Democratic Caucus signed a letter denouncing the Bush Administration's "misguided trade agenda."

Fast track is situated at the heart of that misguided agenda. For that reason, Congress must deny President Bush fast track authority, and I will work tirelessly—along with Republicans who care about jobs and fair trade—to repair the damage this Administration has done to our economy and our future and to deny the President fast track authority.

http://www.kaptur.house.gov/PressRelease.aspx?NewsID=1587