Blog-IT-o ergo sum

	6/30/2005

CAFTA Clock ticks down

The House Ways and Means Committee released the CAFTA legislation to the full floor today. This means a vote on CAFTA will occur no later than July 22. No action before then means by Fast-Track trade rules that CAFTA dies by default.

The unusually close vote in the Senate means that CAFTA can be defeated in the House. The outcome certainly remains in doubt. Check out this new site to get quick contact links to all 13 members of the US House of Representatives.

10:09:05 PM

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Senate Passes CAFTA 54-45

Narrowest margin ever on a trade agreement vote in US Senate!

The bad news is of course that CAFTA passed the Senate this evening. The good news is that it was by an even thinner margin than it looks.

Prior to CAFTA the most votes ever garnered against a trade bill in the US Senate was 39.

We got an indication of how close the vote was going to be when earlier this evening North Carolina Senator Richard Burr stabbed us in the back and switched his vote to YES. Right up until this morning he was telling people that he was going to honor what he had been saying was his inclination and vote NO. Obviously, sometime today the Bush adminstration and the State Department counted up the votes and did not come up with enough in their hands that they could risk letting Mr. Burr honor his pledges to North Carolina voters.

Somewhere in the country there were likely at least 2-3 other Senators that were called on in the final hour to accept their duty as back stabbers as well. This is how close this CAFTA fight is! Such a last minute feat in the House will be far far more difficult to pull off.

For those who would like to offer their commentary to Senator Burr you can quickly e-mail or call him here.

Let me suggest you consider a variation on this theme:

"Dear Senator Burr, You are mistaken if you think the voters of North Carolina will forget your vote on CAFTA come time for re-election. A reply here is not necessary. It cannot be trusted."

10:03:44 PM

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