State of Maine officially says: no more of the same!

Great news — the Maine House of Representatives followed the state senate's lead and unanimously passed the resolution opposing Fast Track! Maine's officially the first state to pass such a resolution. Check out what the sponsors of the resolution think about Fast Track (from the Maine Fair Trade Campaign's press release; sorry, not linkable):

Senator Rotundo explains, "Adoption of this joint resolution sends a strong signal to our congressional delegation and to the U.S. Trade Representative negotiators of our desire to have a voice in trade issues that impact states. The state's capacity to regulate areas such as gambling, licensing of health care professionals, and the health and safety of all its citizens is at stake."

"Fast Track has delivered bad trade deals that hurt workers, families and communities in Maine and around the country," said Representative Patrick, "Fast Track dismisses checks and balances in the trade policy-making process, and now is certainly not the time to give this administration another blank check to sign more bad trade deals. Congress must let it expire and work to replace Fast Track with a new mechanism that includes a process for obtaining meaningful input from state legislatures."

UPDATE: Here is the text of the resolution (PDF), and the MFTC press release (via IATP's Trade Observatory).