HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner

Washington, Apr 11, 2008 - A report last evening on Fox News’ Special Report with Brit Hume highlighted the debate over the Colombia free trade agreement, the decision by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) to kill the pact, and the devastating impact her unprecedented decision would have on our ability to open up a new market to U.S. products and create more American jobs.  Following is video of the report and the full transcript:

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BRIT HUME:  The divide between Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives could not have been sharper today. The Democratic majority voted to change the longest timetable under which trade deals are considered. The effect was to block action on an agreement with Colombia, which infuriated Republicans. Correspondent James Rosen reports.

REPUBLICAN LEADER JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH):  It’s regrettable. It’s despicable.

JAMES ROSEN, FOX NEWS WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT:  House Republicans bitterly denounced today’s action by the Democratic majority, which forced and won a party line vote changing the fast-track rules that have governed for more than three decades the way Congress considers free trade agreements. Now, instead of facing an up or down vote in the next 60 days on a pending deal with Colombia, a U.S. ally in the war on terror and it’s fifth largest export market in the western hemisphere, Congress isn’t expected to take the measure up at all this year, a delay that could well kill it entirely. Democrats, however, denied that was their goal.

SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): This is about giving us more time. In other words, if you’re in a conversation with someone and they hold all the cards, you're not likely to have a winning hand. Now, we're saying, OK, now, the leverage is with us.

ROSEN: Pelosi will use that leverage to try to force the Bush Administration which negotiated the deal, to accept along with it increases in unemployment benefits for displaced American workers. She also wants more pressure placed on the government of Alvaro Uribe in Bogota to curb violence against trade unions in his country, whereby some estimates, 17 unionists have been killed this year alone.

SUSAN SCHWAB, US TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: Colombia has been a terrific ally for the United States. They’re pro democracy. They’re pro markets. They’re pro U.S. right next door to Venezuela, and Hugo Chavez and a lot of bad folks in the region, and we should be supporting them.

ROSEN:  The deal would eliminate tariffs on more than 80 percent of America’s industrial and consumer exports to Colombia, but its passage fell prey to election year politics. The GOP would have seized on any up or down vote Yeah or Nay, to woo those blue collar workers who manufacture the exports, which was why the Democrats used parliamentary procedure to put off the day of reckoning.  Most Democrats, including Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, oppose the deal, absent the add-ons Pelosi has championed. Republican presidential nominee John McCain ardently supports it.

In a rare convergence of opinion, The Wall Street Journal accused Pelosi of acting in bad faith while The Washington Post editorialized that her action effectively tells Colombia to drop dead. On the House floor, posturing and passion evident on both sides, blended like a fine Colombian coffee.

BOEHNER: Anybody that thinks that while we're just going to push this off for a couple of months, that is nonsense. This vote today is a vote to kill the Colombia free trade agreement. Nothing more and nothing less.

REP. PETER DEFAZIO (D-OR): But every president since I’ve been here, Republicans and Democrats says, hey, we negotiated this deal in secret. You can't fail us now. Yes, it's got big problems but we'll fix them later. Guess what? Later never comes!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROSEN: Only 10 Democrats favored an up or down vote within 60 days. One Democrat, seven-termer Lloyd Doggett of Texas made his priorities clear and perhaps the parties when he said on the House floor that a “more responsible enlightened trade policy must wait” until we have a new president. In a statement late tonight, the current President lamented today’s action, Brit, as shortsighted and damaging.