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.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

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.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount