CAFTA passes in tough vote
July 28, 2005
The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives voted 217-215 early on Thursday morning to approve the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
Then, in the afternoon, the US Senate voted 56-44 to send the bill to President George W. Bush for his signature.
The vote in the House was divided very much along party lines, with only 15 Democrats voting for the bill and 27 Republicans opposing it.
Mr. Bush had mounted an all-out effort on Wednesday to mobilize support for the bill, and House leaders held the vote open for an hour while it persuaded enough Republican representatives to vote for the bill to assure its passage.
Two Republicans later said that they tried to vote against the bill, but one said that a faulty computer would not record his “no” vote and another said she was unable to get to Washington from her home district in time to vote due to bad weather.
If those votes had been cast, the bill would have been defeated on a tie vote.
The bill gets rid of tariffs on US goods exported to Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic while it expands the duty-free access goods from those countries already enjoys in the US market.