Members of the House and the Senate delivered 2 million petitions to Congress, opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Trade Promotion Authority (TPA).
The ranking Democrat of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), says that “if there is ever a time in American history that we have got to stand up for the American worker and not for corporate greed—today is that day and the TPP is that issue. The facts are very clear… the TPP follows in the footsteps of other disastrous trade agreements.” Sanders adds:
Over and over again—we were told by corporate America and their representatives about all of the jobs that these trade agreements would create. And over and over again… the proponents of unfretted free trade were wrong. Bill Clinton promised that NAFTA would create a million jobs in 5 years, in fact it lost 700,0000 jobs. We were promised that PNTR with China would create hundreds of thousands of jobs. Instead it has lead to the loss of over 2 million jobs. And on and on it goes. Everybody knows that the great middle class of this country is disappearing and one of the major reasons is a disastrous set of trade policies, which force America workers to compete with workers around the world who make pennies an hour.
The TPP and TPA proposals that President Obama has negotiated in complete secrecy have unified members from both the Republican and Democratic parties against the trade agreement.
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) each joined Sanders to come out against the trade deal, echoing the concerns that TPP would prioritize corporate interests over middle class families and that jobs would undoubtedly be shipped over seas.
The list of House members opposed to the trade agreements continues to grow ahead of a vote.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), former U.S. Navy Seal Team 6 Commander Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MO), Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), and Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) are just a few who’ve spoken against the TPP and TPA deals in recent days.
The petitions come just a day after WikiLeaks offered a $100,000 bounty for the remaining 26 missing chapters of the massive and unprecedented multinational trade deal. In that time, WikiLeaks has crowd sourced nearly 40 percent of its goal.
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