Friday, February 27, 2015

Stop TPP Trade Agreement

Congress Is Poised to Introduce a Bill to Fast Track TPP so It’s Time to Act Now, Posted on February 27, 2015 Written by eff.org
The Trans-Pacific Part­ner­ship (TPP) talks are stalling while the White House assures its trad­ing part­ners that this secret trade agree­ment won’t be amended when it comes back to Con­gress for rat­i­fi­ca­tion after the Pres­i­dent signs the deal. That’s why the Exec­u­tive is scram­bling to get its allies in Con­gress to pass Fast Track. If they suc­ceed, the U.S. Trade Rep­re­sen­ta­tive can block remain­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for the exam­i­na­tion of the TPP’s pro­vi­sions by law­mak­ers who could ensure that this secret deal does not con­tain expan­sive copy­right rules that would lock the U.S. into bro­ken copy­right rules that are already in bad need of reform.
The Fast Track bill is likely going to be intro­duced as early as next week—so it’s time to speak out now. Con­gress needs to hear from their con­stituents that we expect them to hold the White House account­able for the TPP’s restric­tive dig­i­tal poli­cies. Unless this opaque, unde­mo­c­ra­tic process is fixed, and state offi­cials uphold the inter­ests of users rather than tram­pling our rights, we have no choice but to fight trade deals like the TPP.
You can get in touch with your elected rep­re­sen­ta­tives and call on them to oppose Fast Track trade author­ity for the TPP and other secre­tive, anti-user trade deals. We have also cre­ated a new tool for Twit­ter users to ask three key con­gres­sional lead­ers to come out against Fast Track. They are Sen. Ron Wyden, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and Rep. Steny Hoyer. Here’s why we are tar­get­ing these three Con­gress mem­bers in particular.

Tar­get #1: Sen. Ron Wyden

Sen. Wyden is one of the lead­ing defend­ers of users’ rights and a staunch fighter for the free and open Inter­net in Con­gress. For the past sev­eral years, he has been one of the most out­spo­ken law­mak­ers denounc­ing the secre­tive TPP nego­ti­a­tions, and has con­sis­tently raised con­cerns about the agreement’s threat to users. As Rank­ing Mem­ber of the Sen­ate Finance Com­mit­tee, where the Sen­ate bill will be intro­duced, he has a sig­nif­i­cant amount of influ­ence over the out­come of Fast Track. We need to call on him to con­tinue to stand with users and fight back against any ver­sion of this bill that does not address crit­i­cal prob­lems in the trade nego­ti­a­tion process.

Tar­get #2: Rep. Nancy Pelosi

House Minor­ity Leader, Nancy Pelosi, has proven to be an out­spo­ken defender of the free and open Inter­net this year, as she was one of the most vocal pro­po­nents to defend net neu­tral­ity. How­ever, she has unfor­tu­nately been wishy-washy on Fast Track and the TPP. She needs to hear from users that the TPP also puts the Inter­net at risk from oppres­sive reg­u­la­tions. If she were to come out against Fast Track, that would be a strong sig­nal for other House Democ­rats to fol­low her lead.

Tar­get #3: Rep. Steny Hoyer

His vot­ing record for dig­i­tal rights has been pretty spotty, and so far Rep. Hoyer has been sup­port­ive of Fast Track. But as House Minor­ity Whip, his oppo­si­tion to Fast Track would also be hugely influ­en­tial for Democ­rats in the House to come out against it as well.
Let them know that we’re count­ing on them to defend the Inter­net from the White House’s secret, anti-user deals. Once you’re done tweet­ing at them (which you can of course do more than once!), remem­ber to share these actions through your social net­works. We can defeat this mas­sive, anti-user trade deal, but we’re going to need all the help we can get.

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