National Journal's CongressDailyAM Issue date: April 5, 2000
TRADE
Hastert To Announce Date Of PNTR Vote
House Speaker Hastert is expected to announce today the date for a House vote on granting China permanent normal trade relations status. GOP aides say leaders are likely to schedule a vote the week of May 22. The White House has been pushing for a date certain for the vote in order to marshal supporters for the agreement, a prelude for China's entry into the World Trade Organization. Meanwhile, the Business Roundtable will bring its top guns to bear today on Capitol Hill, as more than two dozen corporate CEOs arrive in town to push for PNTR. The corporate leaders will meet in various groupings with about 30-40 Senate and House members, focusing mainly on undecided legislators in both parties. In one gathering not designed as a lobbying session, about a dozen senators will sit down with a comparable number of CEOs for a Democratic Policy Committee meeting organized by Minority Leader Daschle and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., according to a BRT official. The cadre of company chieftains represent a range of industrial giants, including General Motors Corp., Texas Instruments Inc., New York Life Insurance Co., Sun Microsystems Inc., Caterpillar Inc., Boeing Co. and Eastman Kodak Co. A handful of top BRT members also will huddle at the White House with Treasury Secretary Summers and White House National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling to trade notes on their coordinated effort to pass PNTR. The CEOs headed for the Hill represent the vanguard of more than 50 company heads who will be in Washington for the day to attend a BRT policy meeting. The group will be briefed in the late afternoon by Rep. Calvin Dooley, D-Calif., who is helping head up the pro-PNTR Democratic whip operation, as well as Sens. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Evan Bayh, D-Ind. -- By Geoff Earle and Keith Koffler -=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20000405/052f47ee/attachment.htm>