Fast Track Authority

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Wed Sep 9 07:43:36 PDT 1998


Tom Lehman wrote:
>According to Congressmen Bonior, Brown and union political analysts,
>President Clinton and the Republicans plan to bring NAFTA Fast Track
>Authority back up for another vote in mid-September. Anyone seen
>anything of this development?

This came through last night on the Citizens Trade Watch list. Info on joining the list is at the end of the post.

Doug

----

TO Selected Fair Trade Activists FR Mike Dolan and Lori Wallach DT 9/8/98 RE The Ides of September

This won't take long. We don't have much time.Vote dates have been locked in for both Senate and House! We must LOCK DOWN, FIRM UP, RECHECK COMMITMENTS FROM OUR TARGETS:

For all Senators: No on cloture on the motion to proceed on the Senate trade package (aka Trade Tsunami).

For all Representatives - no on fast track.

For those with House IMF targets: No on IMF funding expansion.

Fortunately, we found these toll-free numbers lying around in the public domain, so we can pass it along to you, and hope whoever's paying for it is rich and don't care or don't find out:

800-335-4949 or 888-898-7717

It goes to the Capitol switchboard, which will direct you to any member of either chamber. If it should get disconnected from this free line for any reason, you should still call certain members of your delegation (that's right -- secret Fair Trade targeting -- see below). We hope you will just eat the long-distance cost of direct dialing:

1-202-224-3121

*** August was a busy month for the Citizens Trade Campaign, even as the Lewinsky thing reached new lows and obsessed the corporate "official source" media. Many of you took advantage of the Recess to enjoy eye-contact with your congress member and Senators and lobby them to oppose the last gasps of the "free trade" agenda in the 105th Congress.

Your reports back to this office have been (and the incoming ones will be) distributed to our Hill champions and the public interest and labor lobbyists who will follow up in DC. Together we will mobilize to beat Fast Track again, now that ...

They're back here, House and Senate, and each is poised to vote on legislation that will expand NAFTA (and the whole neo-liberal model of deregulated international development, as the progressive policy wonks here in DC call it all).

Senate Trade Tsunami: Senate Maj. Leader Lott announced he would "bring up and start debate" on the trade package in the Senate the week of September 14. He will offer what is called a "motion to proceed." He needs 60 votes to get past this point. That means we have the best chance to stop the whole Tsuanmi right here before it gets any closer to shore! This key "cloture vote" will be either late Monday 9/14 or Tuesday 9/15.

House Fast Track: Meanwhile, over at the House, the GOP leadership claims they are picking up new fast track support. (Ie. new firm commitments for fast track.) We don't see signs of that really - although we have shared with you the list of Representatives who are no longer firm for us and need serious work. Also you know if you have one of those NAUGHTY representatives who has changed from anti-fast track to pro. Newt swears he will have a fast track floor vote on September 24 come Hell or high water.

IMF Funding Expansion: For those of you who also have IMF Expansion House targets: recent excellent developments - laid out right below -- make our efforts even more worthwhile. BUT - it looks like the vote may come up sooner than expected. We expect the House vote to expand the funding for the International Monetary Fund to come up as soon as next week Sept 15! The vote that matters will be an $18.5 Billion appropriation to the IMF, which includes $14.5B in "quota increases," which we oppose.

Helpful IMF developments: First, the head of the IMF (one Michel Camdessus) has formally admitted that there's plenty of IMF money on hand without the new expansion. In the name of calming the Russia-related panic, Camdessus told Reuters in a story published worldwide that the IMF had vast reserves of gold bouillon and other exotic fungibles totaling some $190 Billion in good money (to throw after bad.) This is the same figure the Government Accounting Office reported the IMF had on hand in a new report released in July. These two admissions have exposed all that Administration nonsense about how the money in question in just a "replenishment" and has made more clear to Congress that this is an un-needed expansion of the IMF funds.

Second, in spite of substantial IMF loans to Russia and IMF-mandated policy changes there, the ruble has tumbled, the Russian economy is crashed out and the level of misery, unemployment, hunger and social unrest there is building - reminding us all of the IMF's criminally pathetic record with the wan, rupiah and baht last year.

Third, the globalization boosters and investors themselves have begun to lose faith in the IMF's anachronistic policies. For instance, 80% of Asia-based investors and industrialists polled believe that the IMF failed in its mission as so-called "lender of last resort." Many agree the IMF contracts with desperate developing nations have made conditions worse for workers, farmers, consumers and democracy in those nations. You may also have seen in the press that Mainstream economists are coming around to the dismal conclusion that the IMF is not part of the solution - but maybe a cause of economic and social havoc and that international capital flows may need some controls.

As a result of these developments, the political tide on IMF Expansion is turning our way. In a very significant recent development, the main GOP proponent of the $18.5 B expansion, powerful Appropriations Committee Chair, Bob Livingston (R-LA), has announced that he is no longer disposed to support the full "quota increase" that the Administration is demanding. Meanwhile, Democrats of both "Blue Dog" (conservative) and "Progressive" (liberal) stripes are teaming up to persuade their caucus colleagues, including their leadership, to buck the White House in this historic debate.

Big Bizness is betting you don't get it or you don't care about $18Billion of taxpayers' money going to underwrite their bad investments. They know that you can provide the margin of victory by contacting the targetted House members on the eve of the vote.

OK, TO REITERATE THE timing and the targets:

September 15th is the likely date of the first Senate-side cloture vote in the debate on the Trade Tsunami (NAFTA for Africa+FastTrack+CBI+MFN for Outer Mongolia+ OECD Shipbuilding Treaty+KitchenSink.) As soon as you get this, start calling - and get your whole coalition calling - your Senate targets. Your message to your Senators must be: VOTE NO on CLOTURE FOR THE MOTION TO PROCEED. It will be a close vote, as you can imagine. If we crank, we can win it.

What we need to accomplish is to make sure the bad guys do not get 60 votes to pass what is called CLOTURE. Cloture is a special Senate procedure that is like a partial mini fast track. Under cloture, limited amendments are allowed, certain Senatorial perogitives are removed and most critically only 30 hours of debate on a bill is allowed before a final vote. The good news is that those trying to ram legislation through using cloture have the burden of getting 60 votes. That means we have to get at least 40 Senators to oppose cloture or to just not show up. If Majority Leader Lott gets his 60 votes - WHICH WE CANNOT LET HIM SO WORK THOSE SENATE UNDECIDEDS!!! - he can move to consideration of the Trade Tsunami itself...

It is no longer sufficient, therefore, to seek a commitment from your Senators that they will oppose the Trade Tsunami, because the free trade lobby only needs 51 votes to pass it if they get past cloture and we'll lose that vote.

Besides that first, most importnat vlote, there are two other potential cloture moments before the Tsunami itself can be ok'd by a mere 50 votes n the Senate floor. You must get a commitment from your Senators to vote against cloture at each of the three times it will be tested - but the first one, cloture on the motion to proceed is the most vital! This means you will need to contact their offices again even if you have been promised opposition to the big honker trade package itself. In other words, you have a follow-up question. When you get a straight answer, please let us know IMMEDIATLEY we'll be counting heads just like Lott and the corporate lobby.

Meanwhile, for those without Senate or House fast track/Tsunami targets, anyone with specific House IMF targets, and everyone else who has time after Tsunami-fast track targets are worked: on or about the Thursday September 10th, the House Appropriations Committee will "mark -up" the legislation which includes the IMF expansion money. A floor vote is possible as soon as Tuesday the 15th - yes right in the middle of Senate Tsunami season. So you don't have much time.

Get on the horn pronto and work your target Representatives. For folks witho/ut specific targets, but time to help: call the Congress -- all the Democrats in your state who opposed Fast Track last year! If you don't remember who was leaning which way last November when Gingrich pulled the bill before the floorvote showdown, and you have access to the internet, go to www.tradewatch.org and click on the FastTrack `page' and find the vote chart link (upper left). Or else call me. Tell them to oppose the IMF FUNDING EXPANSION - not to be duped that is some replentishment. Tell them to oppose a $18.5 billion appropriation for the IMF.

Back to the House for Fast Track Do or Die: Saving the best vote for the last, we return to the penultimate trade battle of the 105th Congress, a fight we won last year, because of you, that's right, Gingrich's promised Fast Track showdown on the floor during the week of Sept. 21, probably on Thurs, Sept 24th. We don't have to tell you how to find your battle stations in this final fight. We know that you will flood the wavering congress-critters with calls and letters (so will we be, of course) and hound them on the campaign trail and share your articulate arguments with the editors and readers of every newspaper, large and small, in your state.

One thing to watch very carefully is Representatives with Ag interests. There is another BS deal being discussed about amendmening the fast track language to give some new limited hearing jurisdiction to the Ag Committee - as if that would fix the problems! Anyway - some Representatives who were with us last time seem to be buying this baloney and also a big PR push by the business lobby that all of ag wants fast track. Our allies over at the Family Farm Coalition and at Senator Dorgan's office have done great work getting a big sign-on letter of ag groups against fast track. It was released today at a press conference with Sen. Dorgan at the Capitol. CTC is running it as a full page ad in the Roll Call Hill newspaper Thursday. Please make use of this letter!

This House fast track fight is very real. Some big institutions who should be cranking (like the AFL-CIO) are suggesting that this is not a real fight. Well, from the mouths of Reps. Bonior, Gephardt, Steel Union President Becker, the UAW, our own Lori and more: it is as serious as a heart attack. Do not delay. Do not stop. GO! GO! GO!

Enough pontificating. Let's review the legislative horizons and urgent actions needed.

Date Vote (H =House) Targets and Message (approx) (S=Sen)

9/10 H-AppComm mark up of Dems who opposed FT last year who don't

IMF expansion understand why IMF expansion is a bad idea

1) IMF has failed in Russia and Asia 9/15 H-floor vote on $18.5B 2) IMF is flush w/$$$

IMF funding 3) Investors won't rely on IMF anymore

4) SAPs are bad, etc.

9/15 S-1st cloture vote All who have indicated reservations about any part of the Tsunami package -- NO on cloture

9/21 S-2nd cloture vote Same + Dems who voted wrong on 9/15 +

All who missed 1st cloture vote

9/24-25 S-Tsunami Showdown Same + all Dems

H-Fast Track Showdown All undecided members, with special attention to

Dems from ag regions.

And those numbers again to the Capitol Switchboard 1-888-898-7717 1-800-335-4949 1-202-244-3121

/s/ Mike Dolan, Field Director, Global Trade Watch, Public Citizen

mdolan at citizen.org http://www.tradewatch.org

Join the Global Trade Watch list server. We will keep you up to date on trade policy and politics. To subscribe, send this message: "SUBSCRIBE TW-LIST" [followed by your name, your organizational affiliation and the state in which you live] to LISTPROC at ESSENTIAL.ORG

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Fred Ross, Sr.



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