Cord Byrd: “I speak today on the subject: A fast track, a fast way around the Constitution. Last Friday, I listened with great…”

“I speak today on the subject: A fast track, a fast way around the Constitution. Last Friday, I listened with great interest to the concerns that were raised in opposition to the free-trade agreements negotiated by the administration with Chile and Singapore. Senators cited an abuse of Executive authority and the undermining of Congress' plenary powers. I was perplexed, to put it mildly--not at the arguments against such abuses by the Executive but at the fact that some Senators were only now waking up to the potential for such a power grab. To those who now express concerns that the plenary powers of the Congress are under attack by this administration, I say that we have no one to blame but ourselves. The Congress inflicted this wound upon itself. We have plunged the knife into our own throats. It is our hands on the hilt of that knife. I refer to the Congress' massively destabilizing decision to disrupt the balance of powers between the executive and legislative branches by granting fast-track trade negotiating authority to the President.”