GOP Leadership Planning Lame-Duck Congress: A Sneak Attack on Our Future

I got this in the mail from a newsletter I'm subscribed to concerning world trade and fair trade issues.

Global Trade Watch Launches LameDuckHunt.org Blog

Dear John,

It should be against the law, but it isn't... yet. But that's the kind of sneak attack that President George W. Bush, Speaker Dennis Hastert, GOP House Majority Leader John Boehner and NRCC Chair Tom Reynolds' are planning for November and December.

Confronted with the likely loss of one or both congressional chambers in the 2006 midterm elections, the GOP leadership seems determined to hoist one final raspberry to public accountability by calling for a rump session of this Congress after the election to vote on harmful legislation they did not bring up earlier because it would have cost the GOP the election! This plan for a lame-duck congress would be the GOP's "screw you" finale to the American electorate.

Global Trade Watch, in cooperation with several other organizations that are concerned about the lame duck session, has launched Lame Duck Hunt, a new blog in which we will be keeping watch on the lame-duck congress with a special eye towards the Peru "free trade" agreement (if you haven't taken action yet on this super-controversial NAFTA expansion, please do so now!).

What other sorts of legislative toxic waste is planned for approval in the lame duck? How about another misguided attempt to allow drilling in the Artic? Or a plan to give oil companies tax incentives to increase environmentally destructive offshore oil drilling? Or a deal to expand unmonitored nuclear programs abroad? Or an attack on "net neutrality" that would give big telecom corporations more control over the Internet? These are just some of the poisonous bills being lined up for the lame duck in willful disregard of the public interest.

There's a reason that Hastert, Bush and company didn't bring up these harmful bills before the November elections: because the policies they want to make into law are rejected by the majority of voters in this country! These bills are harmful whenever they are brought up. Anticipating the changes this election will bring, Bush, Hastert and company are using this as their last chance to deliver on legislation they promised their corporate buddies.

Visit and participate in LameDuckHunt.org as we track the lame-duck session — before, during and after it actually happens — so we can work together to stop some of the nastiness that could come out of it if we're not paying attention!

Check out LameDuckHunt.org to keep track of what unsavory things Congress is planning to do when they are least accountable to us.