No group of economists signed the letter, unfortunately. What groups of economists would sign such a letter?
*For Immediate Release**: * *Contact*: Patrice McDermott, OpenTheGovernment.org, 202-332-6736 March 23, 2015 *Open Government Coalition Urges New Transparency Obligations for Any Trade Authority Legislation; Secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership Must Not be Fast Tracked through Congress* WASHINGTON, D.C. – New trade authority legislation must provide public access to draft trade agreement texts and U.S. proposals throughout negotiations and only agreements developed through such processes should obtain any expedited congressional consideration, twenty prominent U.S. organizations dedicated to government transparency said in an open letter to Congress today, as negotiation on Fast Track legislation continued between Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Ron Wyden (D-OR). The groups, including OpenTheGovernment.org, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Sunlight Foundation, the American Library Association, and the Government Accountability Project, noted that the concerns they raised three years ago with the Obama administration about the unprecedented secrecy of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) had gone completely unheeded, and that the trade talks had gone even further underground. As a result, the letter urges, TPP must not receive expedited consideration under any future trade authority bill. “If the trade authority bill is to actually increase transparency, then it must go much further than simply codifying past practices,” the letter states. “For instance, if a Fast Track bill were to formalize access to draft trade agreement text only for congressional staff * with security clearances*, it would newly create a statutory requirement that trade texts be subject to treatment under the national security classification system. Currently, there is no such legal requirement. Similarly, if the Fast Track bill simply formalizes the past practice of providing Members of Congress access to texts in a secure reading room, this would not promote the values of transparency that is supposedly a centerpiece of this government.” “Without access to information about trade negotiations, members of the public are denied the opportunity to weigh in on agreements that may have a profound impact on their lives and livelihoods,” said OpenTheGovernment.org Executive Director Patrice McDermott. “The secretive TPP negotiations have shut out of the process small business, civil society and other stakeholders who have a direct and long-term interest in the outcome of these negotiations,” the letter states. “Yet, under the trade advisory system, representatives from over 500 business interests have direct access and thus, unlike the public, have the ability to influence an agreement that could have an enormous impact on the public in a myriad of ways. Indeed, these texts will affect the cost of prescription drugs, the state of our environment, and our government’s ability to protect the public from tainted food, defective products, safe drugs, and will touch every American family.” The full letter is available here: http://www.openthegovernment.org/sites/default/files/Transparency%20Groups%20FT%20Letter%20%283-23-15%29.pdf ### OpenTheGovernment.org is a coalition transcending party lines of more than 90 consumer and good- and limited-government groups, librarians, environmentalists, journalists, and others – focused on pushing back governmental secrecy and promoting openness.
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