David Sirota

This is another in a series of ongoing posts following the announcement of a secret free trade deal on May 10, 2007 between a handful of senior Democrats and the Bush administration.

Three weeks after a group of senior Democrats announced a secret free trade deal with top Bush administration officials, Democratic K Street lobbyists are now telling reporters they are making passage of the deal their top priority. Many - if not most - of these lobbyists are former lawmakers and Capitol Hill staff using their ties to Congress to twist arms. Not coincidentally, just last week, congressional Democrats gutted a lobbying reform bill by removing provisions that would have forced lawmakers and staff to wait at least two years before becoming paid lobbyists. Nonetheless, despite the K Street campaign, business interests say they are increasingly worried that they will not have the votes in Congress to pass the secret deal, whose legislative text remains secret. Here is today’s update.

NATIONAL JOURNAL - DEMOCRATIC K STREET LOBBYISTS RAMPING UP PRESSURE TO PASS SECRET TRADE DEAL: National Journal this week reports that “business lobbyists and K Street trade advocates are gearing up to help the Democratic Congress pass” the secret trade deal, even though the legislative text of the deal remain hidden from the public and from rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers. The story notes that, for instance, Democratic corporate lobbyist Scott Parven is “eager to do his part to bolster support for the free-trade agreements.” He said: “We need to have more Democratic business lobbyists talking to Democratic members and staff.” Parven then went on the attack against the labor, environmental, small business, agriculture and consumer protection organizations who oppose the deal. “We need to provide a substantive counterpoint to activists on the left who are banging members over the head saying this is a terrible deal.” Another Democratic business lobbyist added, “The reality is that Democrats are going to be split on trade issues, so the business community’s main agenda is going to be to shore up virtually unanimous support among Republicans in the House and work with Rangel and Levin and the leadership to get 70 to 100 Democrats.”The lobbyist “said that K Street supporters of the deal are coordinating with the pro-trade New Democrat Coalition to win over hesitant Democrats.”

K STREET FRETS OVER POSSIBILITY OF MAJOR OPPOSITION TO SECRET DEAL: Inside U.S. Trade last week reported that “U.S. industry supporters of the bilateral free trade agreement with Peru have privately expressed fears that a vote in the trade committees could be tighter than expected when the deal comes up. In the Senate Finance Committee, while Montana Sen. Max Baucus was at the press conference announcing the secret deal, “some supporters are worried that Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Kent Conrad (D-ND) may vote against the Peru FTA.” The newsletter additionally reports that the legislative language of the secret deal remains secret, but lobbyists “are aware that House Democrats opposed to the template will closely scrutinize the legal text and the extent to which it lives up to the conceptual framework.” The pressure to release the details for public analysis means “Democratic [Capitol Hill] staff wants to make sure it will stand up to that scrutiny.”

PELOSI SAYS SHE WILL IGNORE THE MAJORITY OF DEMS IF THEY OPPOSE THE SECRET DEAL: Rank and file Democrats, led by Reps. Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), are planning to push a Democratic caucus resolution barring the Speaker of the House from bringing the Bush administration’s request for reauthorization of fast track to the House floor for a vote unless a majority of Democrats approve. When asked about this resolution this week, Inside U.S. Trade reports that Pelosi balked, indicating she will ignore the resolution. “I would encourage my colleagues not to be proposing resolutions that say the majority of the majority does this or that,” she said at a press conference, adding: “I have to take into consideration something broader than the majority of the majority of the Democratic Caucus.” Currently, polls show the majority of Americans oppose the continuation of the current lobbyist-written trade policies that fast track advances. Congressional Quarterly reports that according to “a member of Pelosi’s leadership team” a number “of Democrats are now calling for a ‘majority of the majority’ rule on the issue of free trade.” This senior Democratic lawmaker said: “The vote on extending funding for the war created a great deal of anxiety and put stress on the caucus. People are concerned that it will set a precedent. They are asking whether this will occur on other issues.”

DEM LEADERS STILL SAY THEY WILL RELY ON MAJORITY OF REPUBLICANS TO PASS THE SECRET DEAL: Last week, Democrats used parliamentary rules to use a majority of Republican votes to give President Bush a blank check to continue the Iraq War. Now, Inside U.S. Trade reports that House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel expects he will require votes from the vast majority of Republicans in order to pass the secret deal - over the objections of most Democrats. Rangel is still declining to give an estimate of how many Democrats would support the secret deal “except to signal he did not expect a majority of the [Democratic] caucus.” Observers “say the most Democratic votes Peru and Panama will attract is roughly 70″ - or less than a third of all Democrats in Congress. Roll Call reports that “Rangel’s negotiating with GOP leaders and the White House on trade with Pelosi’s blessing angered liberals within the Caucus, who fear the House will move forward with trade measures opposed by a large bloc of the majority party.” For his part, Sherman told Inside U.S. Trade that he believes Pelosi “would not allow this legislation to come to the floor for a vote unless it has the ‘overwhelming support’ of the Democratic Caucus.” Sherman “said he based that assessment on ‘impressions’ he gained in his conversation with Pelosi.”

CROWLEY FACES PROTEST AT DISTRICT OFFICE TODAY OVER SECRET DEAL: Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley (NY) will face a protest today at his district office in Queens over his support for the secret deal. Crowley is a member of the Ways and Means Committee, which will oversee the deal. Representatives of Latino, Korean, labor and health groups in New York will attend the protest, according to the groups’ press release. The protest will take place at Crowley’s main district office at 74-09 37th Avenue, Ste 306B in Jackson Heights, NY today at 3:00 PM.

MORE STATES PASS RESOLUTIONS DEMANDING CONGRESS REJECT FAST TRACK: Public Citizen reports that two more states have passed resolutions demanding Congress reject President Bush’s request to reauthorize fast track authority - the authority that allows the White House to eliminate all labor, environmental and human rights protections from trade deals. Both Pennsylvania and Nevada were the latest legislatures to pass the resolution. Democratic leaders in Congress, nonetheless, continue to say that the secret trade deal may pave the way for them to support Bush’s fast track request.

NY TIMES - “FAULT LINES RE-EMERGING IN THE DEM PARTY” OVER THE DEAL: The New York Times reports that five months into the new Congress, “fault lines were re-emerging in the party.” Specifically, “House Democrats are only beginning to deal with their deep divisions on trade, as a closed caucus last week underscored.” Some freshmen, like Representative Betty Sutton, Democrat of Ohio, are intent on making major changes to American trade policy, much greater than the recent deal with the Bush administration on environmental and labor standards announced by the Democratic leadership. “Our problems with the trading system and the fact that it is broken are much bigger than just having these standards on paper,” Ms. Sutton said.

COLUMNIST - JORDAN TRADE DEAL SHOWS WHY NEW SECRET DEAL SHOULD BE LOOKED AT WITH SKEPTICISM: Citing the utter lack of enforcement of much-touted labor protections in the Jordan Free Trade Agreement, syndicate columnist Robyn Blumner writes in the Salt Lake Tribune that “this example is why I approach the ‘historic’ deal struck between congressional Democrats and the Bush administration on future trade deals with a dose of skepticism.” She notes that “in the same Agence France Presse story announcing the agreement in which Democratic leaders cheered the advance, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers are quoted as also welcoming the deal” because “as Tom Donohue, president and chief executive of the Chamber explained, they’d been given assurances, relative to American workers, ‘that the labor provisions cannot be read to require compliance with ILO Conventions.’” She concludes: “If our government won’t ensure that overseas workers who produce goods that come into our country are treated decently, then maybe it’s time for the private sector to have a shot. The Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act has been introduced in Congress. It would bar the import of goods made with sweatshop labor and would give U.S. companies the ability to sue their competitors that sell them.”

NATIONAL JOURNAL - LABOR PROVISIONS “UNLIKELY” TO BE ENFORCEABLE: National Journal trade expert Bruce Stokes writes that “it is unlikely that if a country violates the labor-rights provisions it will be subject to any quick penalties” under the secret deal. “The process for the reimposition of tariffs to enforce labor rights, under this deal, is modeled on similar language in the free-trade agreement with Jordan,” he writes. “But that provision has never been tested. And, as some on the left have already pointed out, it is unlikely that the anti-union Bush administration will agree to bring a case against the abuse of labor.”

MIAMI HERALD - STATE DEPARTMENT CITED PERU FOR LABOR VIOLATIONS: The Miami Herald reports that the government of Peru is expected to rubber stamp the secret trade deal, and that the deal is pushing forward even though “the U.S. State Department reported last year that Peruvian companies illegally keep workers from joining labor unions and deliberately hire workers informally to avoid providing healthcare or paid vacations.” The report “also found that some 30,000 people do forced labor — particularly in the logging industry — and tens of thousands of children are working, particularly in rural areas and in the drug trade.”

HAYDEN - SECRET DEAL IS “FRESHENED” NAFTA: Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s hometown paper, longtime progressive activist Tom Hayden says the secret trade deal poses a “crisis” for Democrats. “Besides ending the Iraq war, the top priority of American voters in November 2006 was fair trade,” Hayden writes, citing public opinion polls. “Nevertheless, on May 10 Pelosi, White House officials and pro-corporate Democrats announced a surprise “bipartisan” agreement on trade, without revealing any details. As the package is rushed to a vote, it appears to be a ‘freshened’ version of NAFTA (the phrase is that of Mickey Kantor, trade czar under President Bill Clinton).” Pelosi, he says, “faces strong opposition from most members of her caucus, labor leaders and environmental activists” because she is “promoting the common agendas of Wall Street, Hollywood and the New Democrats.” The ultimate question, Hayden concludes, is “whether the Democrats will continue their support of NAFTA-style trade agreements, or else begin to construct a kind of global New Deal as an alternative.”

NY TIMES - COLOMBIA HAS NOT MADE NECESSARY IMPROVEMENTS: The ardently free trade New York Times editorial board writes that the proposed free trade pact with Colombia “rightly remains in legislative limbo over a much starker labor problem - Colombia leads the world in the killing of labor activists.” Though President Álvaro Uribe is heading to Washington to push again for passage of the deal (which is included among the pacts in the larger secret deal), the Colombian government “has yet to demonstrate that it means to take effective steps to protect endangered workers and punish those who terrorize union organizers” with the number of killings “still unacceptably high.”

CHRYSLER OPPOSES SOUTH KOREA DEAL: South Korea’s Yonhap News reports that “automotive giant Chrysler Group expressed opposition Tuesday to a proposed South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement, saying the accord fails to motivate the Asian nation enough to open its market to American-made cars.” The company said in a statement: “Chrysler has supported every free trade agreement ever negotiated by the U.S. government. We are disappointed that we cannot support this agreement in its current form.” South Korea and the U.S. wrapped up FTA negotiations on April 1, but the text of the deal was released only late last week after Reuters reported that lawmakers demanded the Bush administration stop keeping it secret.

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SECRET TRADE DEAL - DAY 21: Dem K Street Lobbyists Begin Whipping Votes