Congressional representatives had only five hours to review the conference committee report on this key legislation that will determine the fate of working people and the state of our environmental for years to come. Two San Diego representatives, Democrat Susan Davis and Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham, voted in favor of fast track.

Democratic Congressman Bob Filner, a stalwart champion for social justice, voted against the bill. "Fast Track undermines the important progress that we’ve made to protect workers, health, human rights, and the environment," he said.

The Senate approved the conference bill on Aug. 1.

The people’s voice ignored
On June 7, the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council AFL-CIO and Environmental Health Coalition held a joint press conference calling on Rep. Susan Davis to vote "no" on the bill, and thus correct the fundamental mistake she made by voting with her Republican colleagues on fast track in the first House vote. EHC and the Labor Council simultaneously launched a Defeat Fast Track Campaign, which included running an ad in five weekly newspapers in Davis’ district - the La Jolla Village News, the Peninsula Beacon, Beach & Bay Press, Coronado Eagle & Journal and the Spanish-language publication El Latino – from June 5th through the 13th.

Unfortunately, Davis put the interests of corporations before labor rights, the environment, and public health by voting for the bill a second time. "This vote represents a huge step back for humanity and Susan Davis took that step against the will of many of her constituents," said Connie García, Policy Advocate for EHC’s Border Environmental Justice Campaign.

Donald Cohen, political director of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, said, "The public now knows that NAFTA was a bad deal, especially for workers and the environment. Fast track is far worse."

On the wrong track
Fast track gives the President the authority to negotiate trade agreements without full participation of Congress. The Bush administration intends to use this authority to extend the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) throughout the western hemisphere in the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Fast track is thus poised to spread even further the poverty, unemployment, and environmental degradation that have become the alarming legacy of NAFTA.

García said, "You don’t have to go far to see the devastating impact of a trade agreement like NAFTA that excludes the voice of the people, and fails to defend environmental and labor rights. We know from our experiences working alongside communities in Tijuana the extent of disease and toxic pollution that exists right across our border, thanks to NAFTA."

The version of fast track that came out of this summer’s Conference Committee is much worse than the one passed by the House in December of last year and the version the Senate passed in May. Highlights of the current bill are disturbing:

• Trade Adjustment Assistance: This version of the fast track bill reduces the amount of assistance to workers displaced when their companies move to another country.
• Chapter 11: Fast track contains the same investors’ protection provisions that constitute NAFTA’s widely-exposed, anti-democratic flaw. These provisions allow foreign corporations to sue sovereign governments when national environmental protections could limit potential profits.
• Gramm Amendment: This amendment sponsored by Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX) undermines countries’ basic obligations to enforce their own domestic labor and environmental laws. For example, the Gramm loophole gives a nation the "right" to change its laws to outlaw unions, allow corporations to employ children as young as 10 years-old, and rescind prohibitions on gender discrimination and sexual harassment

"Fast track is an arrogant instrument that creates a climate in which citizens’ rights and nations’ constitutions take second place to corporate profits," said Amelia Simpson, BEJC Director. "Today, half the people on the planet survive on less than two dollars a day. Trade deals like NAFTA or an FTAA negotiated according to fast track guarantee that the gap between rich and poor will grow, with devastating consequences for health and the environment."