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Pelosi backpedals, offers "real" reason for push-back on Columbia
ABC's Jennifer Duck reports: The White House responded angrily Wednesday to a suggestion from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA that she might change legislative rules to avoid a required vote the disputed free-trade agreement with Colombia.According to existing rules, the Congress has 90 days to vote on legislation sent by the White House. White House spokesperson Dana Perino reacted angrily to Pelosi's suggestion. "Speaker Pelosi today did something unprecedented in the history negotiating trade deals in announcing the democrats would change the rules in the middle of the game," Perino said. The White House has aggressively pushed Congress to approve the trade deal with Colombia, arguing that supporting an ally in South America is in the best interest of the United States. But Democrats oppose the deal, which has been criticized by many labor groups and human rights organizations. The Democrats want to expand support for American workers displaced from their jobs by foreign trade before making more free trade expansion agreements. "It is clear that there are many in the Democratic party who would like to kill this bill. and they would like to do it without having their fingerprints on it. They want to do it in a way where they don't have to take a vote," Perino said. "You can bet that President Bush is going to bring this up at 3:00 when he sees the leaders." The President is scheduled to meet with congressional leaders, including Pelosi, at the White House Wednesday afternoon to discuss the trade deal and other matters. However Speaker Pelosi explained her move saying she thinks the bill would lose if it were brought to the floor immediately and it would send the wrong message to the world about the U.S. positiosn on trade. "I thought there was a risk (in) the President sending it to the Congress now. If brought to the floor immediately, it would lose. And what message would that send?" Pelosi said earlier today. She called Pelosi's suggestion "awful precedent" and said it was "terrible" for this administration and all future administrations. Perino said the White House has "worked tirelessly" and they "have bent over backwards to make this happen" adding "it will be interesting to see how the president deals with that today." Speaking about the Speaker's move Perino said sharply, "The fact that they don't even want to have a vote should maybe tell you something because maybe she's not so confident of the votes they have." After several minutes of Perino's criticisms of Pelosi, ABC's Ann Compton noted that the Press Secretary seemed "a little angry" about the sequence of events today. Perino responded, "I think we're pretty fired up about it. It is the right thing to do. The Free Trade Agreement with Colombia is the right thing to do and they know it. And that's why they don't want to take a vote on it because their special interests are pressuring them not to let this deal go through." Posted by: gorb 2008-04-11 |
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