Every Republican has a rubber stamp on their desk. We need to make sure they don't use them.
Last week, we sent every Republican member of the House a package “from” President Obama asking them to rubber stamp his secret trade agenda. You can see photos and video of the whole process here, or watch the NewsmaxTV interview with Fight for the Future Campaign Director Evan Greer talking about it below.
Part of the package was a fact sheet with half a dozen reasons no self-respecting Republican can ignore when it comes to Fast Track. Feel free to use any of these facts when you make your call:
- Voters overwhelmingly oppose granting the executive branch Fast Track authority. Over 62% of all voters oppose it, and more than 87% of Republican voters oppose it.1
- Fast Track and the Trans-Pacific Partnership infringe on states’ rights. State and local governments will no longer have complete freedom to enact rules governing areas covered by the TPP. Instead, foreign companies will be able to sue state and local governments in international tribunals, putting the interests of foreign corporations and governments ahead of U.S. democracy.2
- Fast Track and the Trans-Pacific Partnership could censor the Internet. Provisions in the TPP would make Internet companies comply with strict new regulations, as bad or worse than anything passed or proposed in the US to date — crippling new, innovative startups in favor of entrenches industries under the protection of big government.
- Fast Track won’t primarily benefit US companies. We need to be sure that decisions about immigration, trade, intellectual property, and more are done in a way that will benefit US citizens and not our competitors from China. Without seeing the deal, there’s no way to know what impact it will have on the private sector.
- Fast Track throws the idea of checks and balances out the window. The Constitution gives Congress the right and responsibility to negotiate treaties — Fast Track transfers that constitutional authority to the Obama administration and global bodies like the U.N. When a treaty does come back to Congress for approval, extraordinary provisions prevent the addition of any amendments.
- Fast Track gives up US sovereignty. Fast Track and the Trans-Pacific Partnership transfers judicial power away from US courts to international tribunals when foreign companies disagree with US law in areas of financial services, food and product safety, trade, taxation, product labeling, and more.
- The “checks” on these problems within Fast Track are an Obama administration sham. The “negotiating priorities” in Fast Track are completely toothless and unenforceable. After passing Fast Track, unelected bureaucrats will negotiate on behalf of the United States, with the power to overrule past acts of Congress, effectively giving up federal authority to global bodies and international tribunals.
1. http://fasttrackpoll.info/
2. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/leaked-tpp-investment-chapter-reveals-serious-threat-user-safeguards
