Archer draws line in sand on fast track

[MDOLAN <mdolan@citizen.org>]

  Journal of Commerce
  Tuesday, October 7, 1997
                                Archer draws line in sand on fast track
  
                                BY JOHN MAGGS
                                JOURNAL OF COMMERCE STAFF
  
  WASHINGTON -- A key House Republican leader drew a partisan line in the
  sand Monday on granting President Clinton new trade negotiating authority, 
  daring
  Democrats and the White House to oppose his approach.
  
  House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer said he would push
  ahead with a committee vote Wednesday for his approach to "fast track" trade
  authority, without the support so far of President Clinton or a single 
  Democratic
  member. "I'm hoping the president will talk personally to as many Democratic
  (committee) members as he can in the next 24 hours," said Mr. Archer at a 
  press
  conference, after sending a copy of his bill to the administration.
  
  Fast-track authority is supposed to speed trade agreements though Congress 
  by
  barring amendments. Mr. Clinton says he will use it to expand free trade to 
  Chile
  and the rest of Latin America, and to pursue global trade pacts in the World 
  Trade
  Organization.
  
  Supporters of fast track say they need at least 40 or 50 Democratic votes in 
  the
  House to pass it, and it will be impossible to muster that many without a 
  healthy
  number of Democrats from the Ways and Means Committee.
  
  But Mr. Archer seemed to believe Monday that he could pass his bill without
  Democratic support. "I would prefer to have a bipartisan majority . . . I 
  still hope
  that will be the case," he said. "But we're going to move ahead on 
  Wednesday."
  
  After years of partisan fighting over the scope of fast track authority, it 
  was not clear
  Monday what substantive issues divided Mr. Archer from the president. Mr. 
  Archer
  has in the past insisted on limiting Mr. Clinton's power to use fast track 
  to implement
  labor and environmental legislation.
  
  Mr. Archer's strategy contrasted with that of Senate Finance Committee 
  chairman
  Bill Roth, R-Del., who last week worked out a bipartisan approach to trade
  negotiating authority that got the support of the Clinton administration. 
  The Roth bill
  seems to have satisfied conservative Republicans who shared Mr. Archer's
  concerns about labor and the environment, but Ways and Means chairman said
  there are differences of "nuance" that made his preferable.
  
  After meeting Monday afternoon with U.S. Trade Representative Charlene
  Barshefsky, Mr. Archer ducked questions about whether she supported his
  legislation. "I'm sure she's going to urge the president to (support the 
  bill), said the
  Texas Republican.
  
  As far as Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee, he said he had not yet
  discussed the details of his bill with Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., the 
  ranking
  Democrat. "I would hope that in the end, he will be on board."
  
  The strongest Democratic supporter of fast track on the Ways and Means
  Committee, Rep. Robert Matsui, D-Calif., announced last week that he would
  support the Senate Finance Committee version of the trade authority.
  ===== Comments by MDOLAN@CITIZEN (MDOLAN) at 10/07/97 10:56 am
  ACTION ITEM:
  
  Call these Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee
  and urge them to reject the retrograde Archer FT language
  
  1)  Jim McDermott of Seattle (WA-7)
  2)  William Jefferson of New Orleans (LA-2)
  3)  Xavier Becerra of Los Angeles (CA-30)
  4)  Ben Cardin of Baltimore (MD-3)
  5)  Karen Thurman of Gainesville (FL-5)
  
  1-800-765-4440:  No Fast Track -- No NAFTA Expansion
  
  
  
  ****************************************************************************
   /s/ Mike Dolan, Field Director, Global Trade Watch, Public Citizen
  
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