Did Cuellar receive pork barrel promises for his CAFTA vote?
Given the lasting damage that CAFTA will cause to Cuellar’s constituents, the CAFTA Damage Reportwill seek to unearth and reveal the promises Cuellar may have received from the White House or Republican House leaders for short-term funding for projects. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said of Cuellar, “He gave me his personal assurances that if I helped this president [on CAFTA], that this president would be there for me. […] He said he knew this from personal experience.”[24]Knowing that such assurances and promises prove elusive, and even when followed through on provide only one-time “good news” to share with constituents in contrast to a bad trade agreement’s lasting damage, most members of Congress did not buy into such tactics, but it appears Cuellar may not have been so wise. Background: Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch has studied over 90 deals taken by members of Congress for trade votes during the period 1992-2004, an
