Does Congress Know
What’s Really in the USMCA?

As Speaker Pelosi and Congressional Democrats continue to make progress in their ongoing talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer over the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a vote on the implementation legislation for the agreement could be scheduled as early as autumn of 2019. Yet, most lawmakers haven't even read the 2,325-page agreement, and much less know what's really in it.

This widespread lack of knowledge about the contents of the agreement poses a real threat to our national sovereignty, domestic laws, and individual liberties. Those of you who have been following The John Birch Society and The New American's coverage of the USMCA may know that the agreement contains workplace protections for migrant workers and “non-nationals” of the U.S., Mexico, Canada; “gender-identity” and other LGBTQ “gender-related issues”; promotion of the United Nations' Agenda 21/ Agenda 2030 concept of “sustainable development”; a provision for an international governing commission; provisions that subordinate subordinate U.S. sovereignty to international law such as the Law of the Sea Treaty and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, neither of which have been ratified by the U.S. Senate; and provisions regarding other world governing bodies such as the International Labor Organization and the World Trade Organization. However, when trying to educate others, especially your congressman or his or her staff, you might be met with skepticism or outright disbelief. 

In order to cut through the fog surrounding the agreement and to help eliminate any ignorance about its contents, we've put together a "USMCA Issues index." This index, like the index you'd find in the back of a book, contains a list in alphabetical order of the most egregious aspects of the agreement, along with the chapter and page numbers. The chapters are also hyperlinked to take you to the specific chapter of the USMCA when you click on them. And best of all, we've fitted the entire list onto a single sheet, which you can easily download as a PDF and print. Once you've printed as many copies as you'd like, you can in turn pass them on to others, such as your representative, senators, and their staff. This way, when you discuss the agreement with them you can give them a copy to show them that what you're saying is true and where they can specifically look up and verify the reference in the agreement. 

In addition to this PDF, The New American's Christian Gomez has written a new online article entitled, “What's Really in the USMCA?,” on TheNewAmerican.com that thoroughly goes through and explains the ramifications of each item listed in the "USMCA Issues Index." You can also print the article to give to your congressmen and their staffs if they would like further information about the items listed in the index.

According to at least one report, Congress may schedule a vote on a USMCA implementation bill before Thanksgiving, which does not give us much time to stop the USMCA.

Please use the “USMCA Issues Index” to help educate your representative and senators about what's really in the USMCA and where to find it in the agreement so that they can see for themselves and know why they too should oppose congressional approval of the USMCA.

Here are three alternatives for doing this:

(1) The best way would be to personally hand-deliver these two USMCA documents to your representative and senators, point out a few facts in them, and ask them to read them.

(2) The next best way would be to get the "USMCA Issues Index" into the hands of one or more staff members of each of your representative and senators. You can find the addresses of their local offices by clicking here and filling in your ZIP code. You'll probably also be asked to fill in your street address. Next, you'll be provided with a list of your federal and state elected officials. By clicking on your representative and senators, you'll get their local office addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. Hand-delivering is best, but you could phone, get the name and address of appropriate staff members, and then mail copies of the “USMCA Issues Index” and TNA online article to them.

(3) The easiest way, although not the most effective way, would be to CLICK HERE to send a pre-written, editable message to your representative and senators  that will include a URL for downloading a PDF of the “USMCA Issues Index” and a link to the TNA article “What's Really in the USMCA?” The message requests them to download the document and read it along with the online article. Please send this message even if you also use methods one or two above.

Thanks.

Your friends at The John Birch Society