CQ TODAY MIDDAY UPDATE
April 10, 2008 – 1:51 p.m.
House Votes to Delay Action on Colombia Trade Pact
Over vehement Republican protests, the House voted Thursday to delay indefinitely its consideration of a Colombia free-trade agreement opposed by most Democrats.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., triggered the delay with an amendment to House rules after President Bush ignored her advice and sent Congress the implementing legislation for the trade deal Tuesday. The rules change was adopted by a largely party-line vote of 224-195.
The Colombia deal was negotiated under the latest version of fast-track trade negotiating law, which expired last year. The law barred amendments and laid out procedures requiring both chambers to act on a pact within 90 legislative days after the implementing legislation has been sent to Congress. But the law also specifies that the procedures and timetable are rules of the House and Senate that can be changed by either chamber.
Democrats said the vote would not necessarily kill the trade deal. But they are frustrated that Bush sent the measure to Congress before securing support from their party leadership. Trade legislation is always politically sensitive, especially in the House, and Pelosi said Wednesday that “if brought to the floor immediately, it would lose.”
Democratic leaders also see the Colombia trade pact as leverage to force Bush to compromise with them on trade adjustment assistance and other measures designed to help laid-off workers and struggling home owners in a slumping economy.
During floor debate, Republicans decried the Speaker’s unprecedented procedural move, saying it would weaken a strong U.S. ally in the region and empower neighboring Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his anti-American policies.
Rep. David Dreier of California, the top Republican on the House Rules Committee, repeatedly referred to the resolution as the “Hugo Chavez rule.”
Upon implementation, the Colombia trade deal would eliminate tariffs on more than 80 percent of Colombia-bound exports of industrial and consumer goods. Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru already receive duty-free treatment on many of their U.S.-bound exports under recently renewed trade preferences for the Andean nations.
Comments
I was elated to read that the CFTA was put off 'indefinitely'. And then I read the next paragraph. The House leadership's feeling were hurt because Bush did not get their support first. When will this genuflecting to corporate interests end? The CFTA should be defeated. Simple. Columbia continues to assassinate trade unionists. This country should be shunned not fawned over. Forget Venezuela. If the US hadn't assisted in the coup, Chavez would not have become paranoid and anti-American. Bush reaps what he sews.
Democrats are a lovely bunch. When Pelosi and her minions are in danger of losing a vote, they change the rules. After all, since their delusional base demands that President Bush must be opposed at every turn, it doesn't matter that the agreement with Colombia was actually in the best interests of the United States. We certainly can't be allowed to honor our agreements with foreign countries when the president that they love to hate is involved. Indeed, Democrats in Congress must go through their daily genuflections at the shrine of George Soros and his billions of dollars. It is sad that George Soros and his allies hate America so much that they would rather sell out the country than acknowledge that President Bush just might have gotten this trade deal right. The Anti-American Left needs to go away; it has been poisoning American political discourse far too long. There is no place for the Soros-financed hatred that has afflicted us for the last eight years.
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