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Still Time to Press For the Sanders



STILL TIME TO PRESS FOR THE SANDERS AMENDMENT!

October 28, 1997
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1. Update
2. Background
3. What You Can Do
4. List of House-Senate Conferees
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1. Update

On September 26, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed an
amendment to an appropriations bill that would require the US Trade
Representative (USTR) to better protect local, state and national laws -
such as the Massachusetts Burma law - theatened by the World Trade
Organization (WTO).

A select group of House and Senate members is still meeting as a
conference committee to reconcile the House version of the bill with the
Senate version, which does not contain the amendment. It is vital that we
contact the House-Senate conferees to urge them to keep the Sanders
amendment in the final bill.

Check the list of House and Senate conferees below. Please call and fax any
conferees from your home state and urge them to keep the Sanders amendment
in the final bill. 

2. Background

On September 26, by an overwhelming vote of 356-64, the House passed the
Sanders-DeFazio-Rohrabacher-Stearns-Ney-Brown-Waters-Kucinich amendment
to the FY 98 Commerce-State-Justice Appropriations, requiring US Trade
Representatives to better protect local, state and federal governments
threatened by the World Trade Organization (WTO).  

Increasingly over the past several years, US environmental legislation and
rules protecting clean air, dolphins, and shrimp harvesting have been
modified as a result of WTO pressure.  

Currently, under challenge at the WTO is the Massachusetts Burma selective
purchasing law that effectively bars Massachusetts state agencies from
buying goods or services from companies that do business in Burma. Modeled
after similar South Africa anti-apartheid laws, the Massachusetts Burma law
represents a powerful measure of support for the Burmese democracy movement. 

The Senate version of the bill does not include the amendment. Starting
next week, a select group of Senate and House members will meet as a
conference committee to reconcile the two versions of the bill and, in all
likelihood, try to strike our provision from the final bill.

Our urgent goal is to persuade the selected House and Senate conferees to
include the WTO provision in the final version (i.e. conference report) of
the FY 98 Commerce-State-Justice Appropriations Bill that will be voted
upon one last
time in the House and Senate respectively and then be sent to President
Clinton for his signature or veto.

3. What You Can Do

- Deluge each House and Senate conferee with e-mail, telegrams, letters
and phone calls. Call toll-free on (888) 723-5246 or (800) 765-4440

- If you call, make sure to ask for the aide working on the Conference
Committee for FY 98 Commerce-State-Justice Appropriations Bill

- Urge them to support inclusion of the Sanders/Rohrabacher et al House
provision protecting our state and national laws from the WTO 

- CALL EVERY DAY (it's toll-free!) until you get a firm commitment from
each conferee's office that they will support inclusion of the House
provision in the final conference report.

- Urge your friends, family and co-workers to do the same!

4. List of House-Senate Conferees

Senate and House members on Conference Committee for FY 98
Commerce-State-Justice Appropriations Bill

Senate							House

Republicans						Republicans
Ted Stevens (AK)--Chairman				Bob Livingston (LA)--Chairman
Judd Gregg (NH)--Co-Chairman			Charles Taylor (NC)
Pete. Domenici (NM)					Ralph Regula (OH)
Mitch McConnell (KY)				       Michael Forbes (NY)
Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX)				Jim Kolbe (AZ)			       
Ben Nighthorse Campbell (CO)			Tom Latham (IA)

Democrats						Democrats

Robert Byrd (WV)--Ranking member			David Obey (WI)--Ranking member
Ernest Hollings (SC)--Ranking member		Alan Mollohan (WV)--Ranking member
Daniel Inouye (HI)					David Skaggs (CO)
Dale Bumpers (AR)					Julian Dixon (CA)
Frank Lautenberg (NJ)
Barbara Mikulski (MD)

For the latest information, contact Brendan Smith or Bill Goold in Rep.
Sanders office at (202) 225-4115
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Simon Billenness
Franklin Research & Development
711 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, MA 02111
(617) 423-6655 x 225
(617) 482-6179 fax
sbillenness@xxxxxxxx
www.frdc.com
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