David Thomas: “would all of the Members for just a minute return with me to 1770? This is not the District of Columbia, it belongs to…”

“would all of the Members for just a minute return with me to 1770? This is not the District of Columbia, it belongs to the State of Maryland. We operate under the Articles of Confederation, and a ship that moves along the Potomac stops in Maryland and has a set of rules. It crosses the river, and it has an entirely different set of rules, because the States set the rules. The gentleman who spoke earlier said, let the people decide. Excuse me? They did, in 1789. They said, ``We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union.'' We all agreed to form a more perfect union. Part of those rules are, in Article I, Section 8, ``The Congress shall have the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States.'' When we deal with foreign nations in Article II, it is done by treaties. It says, ``The President shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties.'' We are dealing with an international organization which the United States relates to through treaty. The WTO cannot make the United States do anything the United States, or a subunit, does not want to do. Let us look at the tenth amendment: ``The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the States are reserved respectively to the people.'' Foreign relations by treaty, the people of the United States said belong to the Nation.…”