Where’s Giffords on Trade Agreements?
As the House Ways and Means Committee was getting geared up for Wednesday’s hearing with U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, labor and environmental groups were busy on Tuesday getting out their message on the perils associated with fast track and the administration’s recent trade agreements.
On a Tuesday morning conference call organized by Public Citizen, Carl Pope of the Sierra Club, Leo Gerard of United Steelworkers and others stressed repeatedly that the 2006 elections showed that Democrats will meet with political success if they continue to hammer Bush trade policies. And they argued that a freshmen Dems, many of whom sounded economically populist themes during the campaign, will be a major force for change.
Indeed, of the 42 freshmen Dems, 39 signed a letter to Ways and Means Chair Charles Rangel back in January. It characterizes Cafta as a “job-killing” agreement and calls for a new approach to trade policy.
Interestingly, Gabrielle Giffords – who has been praised as a “fair trader” by unions – was not on the letter. A call to her office, after several days of back and forth, has yielded no explanation or comment.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30