IAHF Webmaster: Codex Emergency, Breaking News, Whats New, What to Do
IAHF List: CAFTA was passed this morning in the Senate Finance Committee by voice vote (so we can't find out how they voted) and it will be taken up at 10 am tomorrow morning in the House Ways and Means Committee.
You can watch tomorrow's hearing on C-Span or over the link from the House Ways and Means Committee website at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/graphics/video.htm
If it makes it out of committee tomorrow, the soonest it could go to the floor in either the House or Senate would be July 11th when congress reconvenes after July 4th recess, however it would probably be after that because A) they have to line up the votes, and B) it first has to go to the Rules Committee which would take a day or two. The Washington Post has stated that this battle could be decided in the House by as close a margin as ONE SINGLE VOTE, so our voice ACTUALLY MATTERS!
It is IMPERATIVE that we KEEP THE PRESSURE ON and try to KILL CAFTA because it and the FTAA threaten to expand the scope and reach of the WTO's SPS Agreement, Article 3 of which would force harmonization to Codex.
The list of committee members can be accessed here
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/members.asp You can send email to any member of the House of Representatives via http://www.house.gov/writerep/
WHAT TO SAY WHEN YOU CALL: (See list of names below)
"As a vitamin consumer I am very concerned by the threat of globalization. CAFTA would expand the scope and reach of the WTO's SPS Agreement, Article 3 of which forces harmonization to restrictive UN CODEX standards for vitamins and minerals. Please watch the video "We Become Silent" narrated by Dame Judy Dench at http://www.welltv.com which fully addresses this threat.
Additionally, I am sending you email which more fully addresses my concerns"
THEN EMAIL THEM THIS:
"I'm a dietary supplement consumer, and I am very concerned about language buried inside of CAFTA and FTAA which broadens and deepens the scope of the WTO's SPS (Sanitary Phytosanitary Measures) Agreement.
Article 3 of the SPS in the WTO Agreement reads "To harmonize sanitary and phytosanitary measures on as wide a basis as possible, Members SHALL base their food safety measures on international standards, guidelines or recommendations."
This threatens to force harmonization of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 to mindlessly restrictive UN Codex standards which would block my access to vitamins and minerals within the therapeutic range, for starters, then other dietary supplements as Codex expands.
It is evident to me from the book INTEGRATING THE AMERICAS- THE FTAA & BEYOND by the Rockefeller Foundation that this effort to expand NAFTA throughout our hemisphere poses as much of a threat to our national sovereignty as the EU currently does to the sovereignty of each of its member countries.
From a fiscal standpoint, it makes no sense to continue the failed policies of NAFTA which have caused our $617 Billion trade deficit unless you have abandoned your oath of office completely and are trying to crush the doller to usher in a hemispheric wide currency. I don't want to live under a world government, I want to live in the America that used to exist but which Congress is clearly attempting to destroy on behalf of multinational corporate interests who have no use for our constitution or Bill of Rights.
Congressman Paul wrote an article correctly identifying CAFTA as an unconstitutional threat to our sovereignty. http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2005/tst060605.htm The Constitution clearly grants Congress alone the authority to regulate international trade. The plain text of Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 is incontrovertible.
Neither Congress nor the President can give this authority away by treaty, any more than they can repeal the First Amendment by treaty. This fundamental point, based on the plain meaning of the Constitution, cannot be overstated. Every member of Congress who votes for CAFTA is voting to abdicate power to an international body in direct violation of the Constitution.
Unless you vote AGAINST CAFTA and also oppose FTAA with every fiber of your being, you can rest assured I will oppose your political career as long as there is a breath left in my body, because if you vote for CAFTA, I will consider you to be threatening MY LIFE!!!"
WHO TO CALL TO TELL THIS TO:
(Call the Capital Switchboard # 202-225-3121 and ask to be connected to each of these people, and after you're done talking with each one ask to be reconnected to the switchboard so you can be connected to the next one):
HOUSE WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE (VOTES THURSDAY)
Members of the 109th Congress
Bill Thomas, CA Chairman
E. Clay Shaw Jr. , FL
Nancy L. Johnson, CT
Wally Herger, CA
Jim McCrery, LA
Dave Camp, MI
Jim Ramstad, MN
Jim Nussle, IA
Sam Johnson, TX
Phil English, PA
J.D. Hayworth, AZ
Jerry Weller, IL
Kenny C. Hulshof, MO
Ron Lewis, KY
Mark Foley, FL
Kevin Brady, TX
Thomas M. Reynolds, NY
Paul Ryan, WI
Eric Cantor, VA
John Linder, GA
Bob Beauprez, CO
Melissa A. Hart, PA
Chris Chocola, IN
Devin Nunes, CA
Charles B. Rangel, NY
Fortney Pete Stark, CA
Sander M. Levin, MI
Benjamin L. Cardin, MD
Jim McDermott, WA
John Lewis, GA
Richard E. Neal, MA
Michael R. McNulty, NY
William J. Jefferson, LA
John S. Tanner, TN
Xavier Becerra, CA
Lloyd Doggett, TX
Earl Pomeroy, ND
Stephanie Tubbs Jones, OH
Mike Thompson, CA
John B. Larson, CT
Rahm Emanuel, IL
ALSO- Keep sending in this form letter where you can also add your own comments
http://capwiz.com/lef/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=7739691 Sending this in will help especially if it makes it out of committee tomorrow. The Washington Post stated last week that CAFTA could be decided in the House by a close a margin as ONE SINGLE VOTE.
Other organizations are encouraging people to either communicate directly with US Codex Delegate Ed Scarbrough, or to urge the President and Congress to rein him in and to demand that he oppose ratification of the Codex vitamin standard.
IAHF views their approach as senseless given that Codex could easily ratify anyway OVER our objection just via the power wielded by the EU alone, but beyond this, we view it as a political impossibility to rein in Scarbrough given that he's an unelected bureaucrat with a track record of violating the law on this Codex issue and given that he's a cog in the machinery of the executive branch of our government serving directly under a lame duck President who is awash in Pharma PAC Money and who we have very little influence over because he can't run for reelection.
Given the closeness of the CAFTA battle in Congress, and given that we have zero influence over the unelected bureaucrats at CODEX while we DO have influence over Congress, under these circumstances we feel that we're recommending the course of action where we have the best political chance to succeed. If Codex does get sent back to step 5, it won't be due to anything our movement has even done, it would be due to language changes requested by Australia, Venezuela and especially CHINA.
Please take action TODAY and forward this alert.
IAHF needs donations to send John Hammell back to Washington to lobby on this issue. We can't stop Codex AT CODEX because we have no political influence over the unelected bureaucrats who will be making the decisions there, but we CAN stop codex from coming here by killing CAFTA/FTAA.
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