The Questions That Should Have Been Asked at Today's Fast Track Hearing | Electronic Frontier Foundation

The Questions That Should Have Been Asked at Today's Fast Track Hearing | Electronic Frontier Foundation:

 The US Senate Committee on Finance held a hearing this morning on the new "fast track" bill that was introduced last week. The bill, formally called the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities Act of 2014 or TPA 2014 for short, would have Congress "fast track," or hand over its power over US trade policy, to the White House. In practice, this means elected representatives would have even less oversight, control, and authority over secretive agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

It also means that powerful moneyed lobbyists, like Hollywood Studios, could more easily insert their wish list of copyright enforcement provisions into these international deals. If passed, the bill would effectively eliminate substantive congressional review over these secret agreements and create a dangerous lack of accountability over a long list of policies that should really be written and passed transparently and democratically. Any international trade agreement should be given a full reading, investigation, and confirmation by the public's representatives in Congress.