From your
Town Crier:
From your
Town Crier:
Fast Track Do or Die Time!
The August Congressional Recess is in full swing - meaning members of Congress are at home and desperately need to hear from YOU (repeatedly over this month) in opposition to Fast Track. It was thanks to the hard work done by all of you that we were able to keep a vote from happening before the Recess - now we need to use the month while we have them at home wisely - because when they get back to D.C. it will be High Noon in Gucci Gulch with every corporate lobbyist piling on every Congressmember to get a fast September vote for Fast Track.
Now they are all yours and will be until September the 4th - so go after them! Many Members need to be thanked, some need to be convinced, and quite a few are wrong on the issue and need to hear from their constituents how disappointed they are. We are happy to let you know how your Member is leaning - just give us a call or e-mail us (202-546-4996 or mstrand@citizen.org).
When you call your Member (especially Democrats) and ask about Fast Track, you are likely to hear from quite a few of them that: "The Member opposes the Crane Fast Track Bill or H.R. 2149." Your inclination might be to say "...whew - thanks" and get on with your life. BUT, NO...CRANE WILL NOT BE THE ACTUAL FAST TRACK BILL THE MEMBERS WILL FACE IN A VOTE - BEING AGAINST CRANE DOES NOT MEAN WE HAVE THE MEMBER'S VOTE!
The Crane bill is opposed by almost every Democrat as well as some moderate Republicans. The purpose of the bill was to set a far right margin from which the House GOP could negotiate some figleaves to make a "compromise" with Democrats. The GOP has sought out the few Democrats who they know would basically support any Fast Track; and they are trying to figure out how little they can get away with to pick up additional Democrats. One approach they are considering is to add meaningless, unenforceable labor and environmental language in to the old Fast Track - which is what one of the Fast Track bills introduced in the Senate does (namely, the Graham-Murkowski bill, which we all oppose). Meanwhile, another group, led by Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI), has been working on a "Democratic alternative" to Fast Track - in part to give 'free trade' Democrats something to be for so they are comfortable with opposing whatever the GOP come up with. Since the GOP controls the House floor, this Democratic bill will never be voted on.
With the shifting sand and the likelihood that some fig leaf draped Crane-lite bill will be what Members actually face on the floor, we need to pin our targets down to oppose anything that does not meet the following high bar test:
Ask and obtain commitments that the Member will oppose any proposal that does not meet commit these FOUR benchmarks:
1) Any future trade negotiating authority must include mandatory negotiating objectives on the establishment of binding labor and environmental rules in future trade and investment agreements;
2) Such labor and environment provisions must be included in the core text of future trade and investment agreements;
3) The enforcement of labor and environment provisions must be on parity (ie identical) with commercial provisions; and
4) Labor and environmental rules must be enforceable through the only effective means known - trade sanctions.
If the Member/staff says "yes" to these four benchmarks and promises to oppose any Fast Track bill that does not meet these tests, then you say "...great - thanks a lot, can I have that in writing?"
Once you have a written commitment, you should throw the Member a party (at which you present him/her with a Fair Trade Champion award, suitable for framing), send in thank-you Letters to the Editor and to the Member's office, etc.
If your Member does not want to commit to the four points, you know you have your work cut out for you. We must make it crystal clear to them that the vote that counts is NO on whatever fig leaf decked Fast Track bill the House GOP allows to come to the House floor.
WAIT AND SEE SCENARIO: If your Member say (s)he has to wait and see what they are actually voting on, be VERY worried, increase the pressure and verbally counter with the following: "We can know right now that the House GOP will NEVER agree to any major progressive rework of how we negotiate trade deals. We have all seen the worthless environmental and labor side agreements from NAFTA - these mistakes can not be repeated!" Tell the Member: "Let's agree to a test of the bill that comes out..." and then try to get them committed on the four benchmarks or on at least some of them. When the final bill comes out you can then go back and show why the bill does not meet the benchmarks.
LEVIN GROUP SCENARIO: If your Member is a Democrat and tries to avoid making a commitment by saying (s)he is a part of the "Levin working group," the first approach is again to get a commitment to the four principles above, noting that such principles need to be the bottom line of the Levin process. Then also consider the following approach: "We all know that because the GOP control the floor, whatever comes out of the Levin process is not going to be the legislation that goes to the House floor for a vote. What counts for us is what you do on the actual Fast Track bill that does come to the floor. If it does not meet those four benchmarks above, then we expect you to oppose it. Whatever you have to say about whatever document or bill comes out of the Levin process is your business. What we need from you is a commitment to vote NO on the floor for any Fast Track bill that does not meet the criteria."
Our goal for recess must be to keep opposition to Fast Track on the minds of all of our targets all recess long. The steps we need to take to win are rather simple and straight forward, but oh-so-successful:
Keep calling and get others to call. Courtesy of the AFL-CIO, the toll-free number to the Capitol is still open: 1-800-393-1082. During recess, you can reach your Members at home and you can find their numbers in your local phone book. They often have several district offices, so call one local office per day!
Set up a meeting with your Member (if you are wondering how your Member are leaning on Fast Track, you can contact us here in DC). Get a coalition together to attend the meeting. You can find a sample meeting request letter on www.tradewatch.org
Find out your Member's public schedule during recess (town hall meetings, constituency session etc). Your Member's district office should be able to provide you with this schedule. Have people attend each and every one of these and ask questions on Fast Track, wave signs (which we can provide thanks to the AFL-CIO.)
Organize a visibility event (press conference, rally). For example, there are lots of great reports that you could do a local release of or otherwise highlight (like the EPI's job losses report which you can get as a state-by-state report, Public Citizen's report on the impacts of NAFTA on agriculture and others.) We can help in putting together a coalition as well as with press materials.
Send in letters to the Editor. You can find sample letters on www.tradewatch.org
Send in letters to your Member and explain your opposition to Fast Track. Sample letters can be found on /www.tradewatch.org
If you are uncertain about who your Member is, visit www.house.gov and scroll down to the bottom. Click on the link that says "Write your Representative" and enter your zipcode.
We will keep you posted with more information & updates, and we rely on you to report back to us what you hear from your Member.
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