To: The United States House of Representatives
Representative Kathy Castor, Please Vote "NO" on Fast Track
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As constituents of your district, we, the undersigned, are asking you to oppose giving the president trade promotion or fast-track authority that would allow him to ram through two detrimental so-called free trade agreements: the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP.
Why is this important?
Fast Track is a procedural trick created by Nixon in 1974, to by-pass the Constitutional provision in Article 1-8, which states that “Congress shall have the power to regulate Commerce with foreign nations.” Fast track erases the representative power vested in Congress to debate bills on their merits, or amend, and instead, cedes this power to the president. Both so-called free trade agreements, TPP, and TTIP, undermine United States sovereignty by creating binding agreements set by some 600 trans-national corporate advisors, and would nullify many of our laws that protect citizens, consumers, and the environment, if these very laws stand in the way of projected corporate profits.
Corporations are suing today in anticipation of setting precedents on cases ranging from drug patent extensions, which would eliminate affordable generics, suing over countries banning a pesticide that kills bees, to suing over product labeling of GMOs. Every area where a corporation will earn less, will be on the chopping block, among them, labor rights, and minimum wage requirements, patent and copyright issues, food safety, product safety standards, clean air and water, buy American procurement policies, healthcare, energy, internet freedoms, and service sector regulations.
TPP and TTIP, sweeping Free Trade Agreements, while having been negotiated in secret for three years, will, if passed into trade law, do extreme damage to the citizens of this country. We already know from experience, the damage free trade agreements like NAFTA have caused: mass shutdowns of U.S. manufacturing, soaring unemployment, deep decreases in wages, huge budget deficits, enormous trade deficits, and increased immigration rates, among many other negative impacts. With so very much at stake for the citizens of this country, shouldn’t we openly debate the bill on its merits, and amend, instead of limiting floor debate to 20 hours and only an up or down vote? Fast Track is outdated, and there is no reason to subject the citizens of this country, and your district to such an onerous procedure that severely limits representative government, handing it instead to “foreign and corporate advisors.”
Representative Castor, please vote against fast track, and in favor of government of, by, and for the people.
Corporations are suing today in anticipation of setting precedents on cases ranging from drug patent extensions, which would eliminate affordable generics, suing over countries banning a pesticide that kills bees, to suing over product labeling of GMOs. Every area where a corporation will earn less, will be on the chopping block, among them, labor rights, and minimum wage requirements, patent and copyright issues, food safety, product safety standards, clean air and water, buy American procurement policies, healthcare, energy, internet freedoms, and service sector regulations.
TPP and TTIP, sweeping Free Trade Agreements, while having been negotiated in secret for three years, will, if passed into trade law, do extreme damage to the citizens of this country. We already know from experience, the damage free trade agreements like NAFTA have caused: mass shutdowns of U.S. manufacturing, soaring unemployment, deep decreases in wages, huge budget deficits, enormous trade deficits, and increased immigration rates, among many other negative impacts. With so very much at stake for the citizens of this country, shouldn’t we openly debate the bill on its merits, and amend, instead of limiting floor debate to 20 hours and only an up or down vote? Fast Track is outdated, and there is no reason to subject the citizens of this country, and your district to such an onerous procedure that severely limits representative government, handing it instead to “foreign and corporate advisors.”
Representative Castor, please vote against fast track, and in favor of government of, by, and for the people.