Today in Washington D. C. - April 18, 2008

On The Floor: Yesterday, the Senate passed the highway technical corrections bill (HR 1195). Prior to final passage, the Senate approved an amendment which would call on the Justice Department to look into the Coconut Road controversy and defeated one which would have set up a Congressional investigation. Next week, the Senate could take up a veterans’ benefits bill (S. 1315) and a bill to reverse last year’s Ledbetter v. Goodyear Supreme Court decision (H.R. 2831). A cloture vote on the motion to proceed to S. 1315 is scheduled for noon on Tuesday.

From Senate & News Sources: The Wall Street Journal reports today that the U.S. and South Korea have reached an agreement to resume American beef exports to South Korea. U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab “said the arrangement removes a ‘major obstacle’ to consideration of the South Korean free-trade deal, and said the Bush administration ‘will now work in earnest with Congress and the American agricultural community to secure’ passage.”The Journal adds, “Two-way trade between the U.S. and South Korea in 2007 totaled more than $80 billion. U.S. officials estimate the proposed trade deal would spur billions of dollars a year in added economic activity, boosting sales abroad of American-made goods but also opening creating new opportunities for U.S. financial-services companies. The deal with South Korea would be the largest U.S. bilateral trade pact since the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.”

Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called for Congress to quickly move forward to approve the free trade agreement with South Korea if our beef export dispute is resolved. He also pointed out that we must show our allies that we honor our agreements as we continue to open up markets for U.S. exporters. In an op-ed on Wednesday, Sen. John McCain said, “We have negotiated a trade agreement with South Korea that will expand American exports and create American jobs. The Democrat candidates for president both oppose this agreement, thus placing their short-term political interests ahead of the long-term national interest. Retreating behind protectionist walls will neither create American jobs nor further our international credibility.”

Politico cautions that “trade lobbyists say that the Korea free trade agreement doesn’t stand a chance if congressional Democrats defeat the Colombia free trade agreement, which is currently caught in a stand-off between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the White House.” In today’s Examiner, former V.P. Al Gore’s former communications director, Lawrence J. Haas, urges Pelosi to reconsider her opposition to the Colombia deal. Haas writes that her move to freeze House action on the deal last week, “sacrifices an issue of enormous national strategic importance at the altar of the bitter partisan politics that have become all too common in today's Washington.” Even the Speaker of the Colombian House of Representatives, Oscar Palacio, has written a letter to Pelosi in which he says the freeze “is a blow to the Colombian economy, and affords colonial treatment to us that is unbefitting one of the United States’ staunchest allies.”

Americans have much to gain from these free trade agreements, as evidenced by today’s Wall Street Journal story discussing how Illinois-based Caterpillar has done well despite the domestic economic slowdown through sales overseas. Congress should act to pass both the Colombian and South Korean free trade agreements.

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