Alan Grayson aims to flood TPP deal with public comments

U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson announced he would deliver nearly 6,000 public comments Wednesday on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, more than tripling the number of public comments the Office of the United States Trade Representative has received.

The office will review the comments on the proposed trade deal’s potential effect on U.S. employment, including labor markets. Today is the deadline for such comments to be filed.

Grayson, an Orlando Democrat, is running for Florida’s U.S. Senate seat and his Senate campaign released news of his comment delivery, declaring “nearly every one of them (is) opposed to a deal they fear will destroy thousands of good American jobs.”

Before Grayson’s delivery, the trade representative’s website reported it had received 2,589 public comments on the potential effect. Grayson said he was delivering 5,901 more.

Grayson is a longtime, staunch opponent of the deal. He solicited the comments.

“Corporations eager to ship American jobs offshore have clogged the halls of Congress with lobbyists to tell members how to vote on the TPP,” he stated in the news release. “Working Americans are just not being heard. In fact, they’re not even really being told they can weigh in on the TPP.

“Well, I’m going to be their voice. I’m going to be their insider in Congress when it comes to the TPP,” he said.” I’m going to make sure thousands more Americans are heard when I deliver these 5,901 messages to Congress.”