Rep. Loretta Sanchez: TPP is Too 'Secretive'

Members of Congress are taking to the opinion pages of the nation's newspapers to express their frustration and disillusionment with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the administration's "Fast Track" agenda.

This week, in The Hill, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) writes:

Past trade agreements, like NAFTA and CAFTA, have failed to deliver on stated promises to create good U.S. jobs, increase trade surpluses, improve workers' and human rights, and establish a cleaner and more sustainable environment. There is nothing in the TPP to show it will be different than the previous record of broken promises.

Sanchez takes particular issue with the TPP's lack of transparency. She says:

Congress is granted the constitutional authority to provide important oversight and approval to trade legislation. Yet the TPP has been negotiated largely in secret -- what we do know about many of its troubling provisions come through leaks rather than a seat at the negotiating table. According to the ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), he and committee chair Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) share concern that the TPP and its negotiations lack critical transparency.

Yet at the same time these transparency concerns are being raised, the Obama administration is simultaneously asking Congress to provide "fast track" authority and cede their role and input on key policy provisions.

Congress should not take, or cede, their responsibility lightly. The Trans-Pacific Partnership is too secretive and potentially too damaging to be rushed through Congress via "fast track" authority. Based on the past two decades of broken trade promises and "trust me" assurances from past presidents, our country can no longer take that chance.