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Comment by thisisparker | Hacker News Reader

Hi snowwrestler, I'm one of the shrill and incomplete activists at EFF.

You're correct in the abstract that such an agreement would need Senate review, but as noted in the piece and as we described in a letter to the Senate signed by Amnesty International, FSF, Free Press, and a bunch of others, the USTR is currently seeking "fast track authority" to bypass that process.

Read the editorial: the NY Times is endorsing an agreement that the public can't read. If they wanted it to be conditional, they could have written it that way. But instead, they acknowledged concerns and then dismissed them without a good explanation. And the public can't explain it themselves because we can't read the text.

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To me the NYT seemed like they were endorsing the idea of such an agreement, not any current one.

It's too bad that the linked EFF article is so overblown, because I think that transparency is badly needed, and that media outlets should cover any TPP dealings better. By sensationalizing things, you've discredited the positive message of the post.

Hi, thanks for commenting. I just think you guys would be more effective if you communicated more honestly.

I'm sympathetic to your concerns around IP enforcement in TPP. But instead of discussing those, I find myself having to educate people about the basics of legislative procedure, like whether a treaty will be reviewed by the Senate. Even under TPA, the answer is yes.

I don't understand why you guys write this way. It creates massive distraction from your central points (see: most of this discussion), and it turns off folks who have the best understanding of the issues--the folks who theoretically should be most helpful to your cause.

>>I'm sympathetic to your concerns around IP enforcement in TPP. But instead of discussing those, I find myself having to educate people about the basics of legislative procedure, like whether a treaty will be reviewed by the Senate. Even under TPA, the answer is yes.

I'm not quite sure I understand how an up or down vote in the senate that is certain to pass counts as 'review.' The time to mount any public criticism will be very small and there will be enormous pressure to approve the agreement as amendments will not be possible.

Because the Senate gets to set its own rules for how it operates.

It's not like the effect of TPA would be a surprise to the Senate. Senators understand very well what it would mean for their ability to amend trade agreements. If they want the chance to review and amend the TPP, they won't pass TPA.

This is in itself a huge problem: Public debate in the legislature is not just for the legislature, but for the public. A fast-track enables back-room dealing between the executive and legislature that effectively cuts off the opportunity of the public to review and lobby against passage of an agreement, and substantially insulates them against public criticism of parts of agreements by giving them an excuse ("I could only vote yes or no") and keeping it out of the news cycle as much as possible.

In other words: Everyone, not just Americans, should worry even more about the contents of such an agreement if the US Senate chooses to allow such an agreement to be fast-tracked, because you can be virtually certain the reason will be because the Senate power brokers are worried the content would not withstand a longer public debate.

Read the editorial: the NY Times is endorsing an agreement that the public can't read.

I did. It isn't.

the USTR is currently seeking "fast track authority" to bypass that process.

So when are we gonna get to read it? After the Fact? Who is supposed to "analyze" this? WTF

When it's offered to the Senate for ratification, which is entirely in line with Article II of the Constitution as far as I can see. The President is empowered to make treaties, and the EFF is being rather disingenuous in seeking to imply that Congress's role is being usurped in any way.

The fast track negotiating authority (also called trade promotion authority or TPA, since 2002) for trade agreements is the authority of the President of the United States to negotiate international agreements that the Congress can approve or disapprove but cannot amend or filibuster.

Are you taking issue with the premise of fast-track (ie, that it will go regular track)? Because based on the structure, it comes up for a vote in Y/N only. So debate is essentially pointless (unless the whole thing is rejected) as its take-it-or-leave-it. So all of the non-pointless debate needs to occur beforehand. Which is certainly inconsistent with complete secrecy. Or is everybody missing something?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_track_%28trade%29

I'm absolutely fine with the debate being about whether to accept or reject it. There's so much bikeshedding and logrolling in Congress these days that I think they're more effective when confronted with the necessity of an up or down vote. YMMV of course.

Also, that's how the Senate votes on judicial and other nominees (Y/N, rather than having any control over a shortlist or setting criteria), and Article II says that treaty votes come before the Senate the same way. I have the impression that you and several other posters would prefer a more parliamentary system of government where the executive was a member of the legislature and directly subject to its authority* but that's not our constitutional scheme.

* A key difference in a parliamentary system being that a vote of no confidence in the executive can force a general election.

My issue with this is selective discolure. The idea that you only disclose XYZ treaty to PQR special interest and then not show it to the public is BS. I understand the logic of the fast track, and I also understand to concept of too many cooks in the kitchen. But strategic, manipulative, selective disclosure is another ball of wax.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6694617

Fast track expired in 2007, so yes, if the TPP were introduced today it would come up in Congress under regular order.

It's possible that Congress could choose to renew fast track, but that would not mean they are being bypassed--since they themselves would be putting the restrictions in place, and they obviously all know that the TPP is coming down the track.

Also--Congress could not even pass a budget to keep the federal government open. Personally I am not worried that they will move too fast on anything in the foreseeable future.

Right.

It's a plausibly deniable cheerleading article for the Obama administration with almost no real content other than the fact that negotations are in progress.

>>You're correct in the abstract that such an agreement would need Senate review

Even without fast track approval the agreement would be structured as a congressional-executive agreement that would not require a two thirds majority. With fast track approval congress would still have to approve the agreement although a filibuster would not be possible.

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