Congress needs to reclaim its constitutionally authorized power to regulate commerce with foreign nations by ending Trade Promotion Authority.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) announced at a hearing on March 21 that President Trump had submitted a request for Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) renewal on March 20. In the 2015 legislation granting TPA to President Obama in 2015, TPA was scheduled to sunset on June 30 this year; however, Trump’s request for renewal will automatically lead to an extension of TPA for an additional three years unless the majority of one legislative chamber of Congress (either the House or Senate) passes an extension disapproval resolution before July 1.
Congress should reassert its constitutional authority, under Article I, Section 8, Clause 3, of regulating commerce with foreign nations by ending TPA. If Congress acts to end TPA effective July 1, and if there is no new NAFTA agreement before July 1, then any new NAFTA agreement finalized after July 1 would face many barriers to approval by Congress. In the absence of TPA “fast-track” rules, the new NAFTA agreement would be subject to debate, the likelihood of myriad amendments in both House and Senate, and filibuster in the Senate (requiring 60 votes to end a filibuster and proceed). Stopping congressional approval of a renegotiated NAFTA would set the stage for influencing Congress to get the U.S. completely out of NAFTA. Withdrawal from the disastrous NAFTA treaty would be a tremendous victory for the American people and our national sovereignty.
Back in 1993 when the NAFTA agreement was being considered by Congress, Henry Kissinger wrote an article for the Los Angeles Times entitled “With NAFTA, U.S. Finally Creates a New World Order.” That title alone reveals why we say that NAFTA is not about jobs, but about our freedom and independence. In this article Kissinger referred to NAFTA as “the most creative step toward a new world order taken by any group of countries since the end of the Cold War” and stated further that it “is not a conventional trade agreement, but the architecture of a new international system.” That’s why globalist elites consider the NAFTA agreement to be the foundation of an eventual North American Union, a supranational governmental entity that would be comprised of the three formerly sovereign nations, the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Here are six reasons why either the House or Senate should pass a TPA extension disapproval resolution (based on William F. Jasper’s article entitled “7 Reasons Why Trade Promotion Authority/Fast Track Must Be Defeated,” published on TheNewAmerican.com, on June 5, 2015, when the current TPA was being considered by Congress):
1. TPA is essential to passage of a renegotiated NAFTA, which would serve as a forerunner to an EU-like North American Union (NAU), as well as lead to the potential passage of other sovereignty-killing “free trade” agreements like the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which according to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross the U.S. is “still open to.”
2. TPA is an unconscionable abdication of constitutional responsibility by Congress.
3. TPA not only hands Trump unconstitutional powers previously given to Obama, it potentially gives them to his successor as well.
4. TPA is another giant step in the unconstitutional transfer of congressional authority to the president.
5. TPA also challenges the Constitution by violating the requirement that treaties be ratified by a super-majority vote of two-thirds of the U.S. Senate.
6. The TPA will speed the transfer of immense power to federal and international judges to eviscerate the Constitution; to strike down federal, state, and local laws; and to legislate from the bench.
In light of President Trump’s application for TPA renewal, now is the time to phone and email your representative and senators and urge them to introduce and help win support for an extension disapproval resolution for TPA before July 1.
It is high time to end the multilateral trade agreement madness that is destroying our national security and independence. Tell Congress to end TPA.
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