Opposition to Fast Track for TPP at a Boil as Congress Recess

As Members of Congress return home for recess, they will be confronted with rallies and town hall meetings where constituents, CWAers and partners, have one message for them: Vote No on Fast Track Authority for trade deals.

CWA Local 3104 retirees writing their Members of Congress to tell them to Vote No on Fast Track for the TPP.

Below: Activists from Local 1103 report a very positive response to the latest phone bank to retired members. Here, Retired Members Chapter Secretary-Treasurer Robert Ferguson phones retirees, urging them to call their member of Congress and press him or her to vote "no" on Fast Track authorization for the TPP.

Obama administration officials – under watchful eye of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and officials of some of America's biggest corporations – have been secretly crafting a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal with 11 other nations that many have warned would destroy American jobs, wreak havoc with the environment and play fast-and-loose with our sovereignty.

Visit http://stopthetpp.org/ to learn more about the TPP.

A sizable majority of the Democratic Caucus – at least 150 members – has already come out saying they will Vote No on Fast Track for the TPP, along with many Republicans. Working with coalition partners, CWA will be holding town halls and/or rallies during the recess in many Congressional strongholds of Democrats who are undecided on Voting No on Fast Track for the TPP.

Perhaps out of fear that details of what they're negotiating won't hold up under scrutiny, the administration has been pushing hard for Fast Track – rebranded as Trade Promotion Authority – that asks the U.S. Congress to cut itself out of its Constitutional responsibility to examine trade deals. If Congress does this, it would mean an up-or-down vote on the deal with no debate or amendment.

Many members of Congress think Fast Track is a bad bargain for a bad trade deal. Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) went on "The Laura Ingraham Show" to trash Fast Track.

"If you want to sell out America, then get behind giving the president what I call the Trade Promotion Authority, better known as Fast Track. This is absolutely a threat on our Constitution, on our sovereignty, when you allow a president to have the authority to bring before Congress the issue, but not allow Congress to debate, to amend, or to change the agreement, then that in itself is not what the Constitution intended for this country," Jones said.