MAY 6, 2015
Sen. Sessions eviscerates fast track Pacific trade deal
FAIRFAX, Va. – Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) for his statement raising critical concerns with granting President Barack Obama trade promotion authority to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership:
"Senator Sessions' resistance to granting additional trade authority to Obama to negotiate the Pacific trade deal is a game changer in this debate as his statement deals with substantive problems with the Treaty. The TPP will subvert the treaty clause of the Constitution, increase immigration, and cede sovereignty to international powers, allowing nations like China to dock into the treaty without any congressional say so. Meanwhile it fails to address monetary policy, the primary means that nations price goods and services on a competitive basis.
"The president does not need congressional authority to negotiate a treaty. Period. Case closed. End of story. The argument that fast track provides the "advice" from Congress on this negotiation on a Treaty that is 99 percent completed makes a joke of Congress' proper Constitutional role in this process, and using that last second "advice" as justification for lowering the ratification threshold is an affront to those who still believe in meaningful separation of powers.
"As Senator Sessions notes, 'perhaps we don't need a 'fast-track' but a regular track: where the President sends us any proposal he deems worthy and we review it on its own merits.' If Obama wants this Pacific trade pact, he ought to finish negotiating it and submit it to the Senate for two-thirds ratification."
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