mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman for yielding to me .  mr. speaker , earlier this evening we heard an hour debate of why congress and the american people should support cafta .  and to the gentleman from michigan ( mr. levin )  i would like to say , as paul harvey would say , now the rest of the story .  i want to thank my good friend , the gentleman from michigan ( mr. levin )  , a distinguished member of the committee on ways and means .  he has been a remarkable advocate for issues affecting working families .  this week the house is expected to vote on a trade agreement that only promises job losses and devastation .  mr. speaker , i rise tonight in strong opposition to cafta .  i rise tonight for all mainers who have lost their jobs .  i rise for all working americans and their families , many who are still working at this late hour to help make ends meet .  and i know what it is like myself .  for almost 30 years i worked at great northern paper company in east millinocket , maine , where my father worked for 43 years , my grandfather before him for 40 years .  and that is the way it is in a lot of mill towns in maine and all across the country .  two days after i was sworn in as a member of congress in january of 2003 , i learned that the mill where i worked filed bankruptcy and was shutting its doors .  the mill was closed largely due to the pressure created by unfair trade agreements , years of poorly thought-out trade deals that placed manufacturing industries at a huge disadvantage .  and one would only have to look at the huge trade deficits that are continuing to grow ever since nafta went into effect .  i know firsthand , as many mainers do , that with these layoffs and closures , when these businesses go under because of unfair trade deals , so does the heart and souls of these communities .  in maine alone , since 1998 and to late 2004 , the federal government had documented 11 , 724 workers who lost their job due to trade .  although the real undocumented number is much higher , it has been estimated that 24 , 000 mainers have lost their jobs due to nafta alone .  the number serves to demonstrate yet again what people in maine already know through our own tough experience .  the economy continues to struggle and our workers see fewer good prospects .  maine has lost 23 percent of our manufacturing base over the last 3 years alone .  now , i heard my colleague who supported cafta earlier talk about the unemployment going down .  well , i can say my first year in congress we had labor market areas in maine whose unemployment rate was over 35 percent .  and the reason why the number is lower today is not because they have found jobs , it is because this congress , the previous congress , has failed to extend the unemployment benefits , so they are no longer counted as being unemployed .  they just drop off the list .  we are sick of watching our jobs get shipped overseas as our workers stand waving good-bye to them .  it is time to get off the fast track of lost jobs and shattered dreams and on to the right track for fair trade agreements .  when it comes to cafta , the benefit is pretty hard to find .  despite having 44 million inhabitants , the cafta nations ' total purchasing power is the same as new haven , connecticut .  more than 40 percent of the central american workers work for less than $ 2 a day .  cafta outsources our jobs to cheap labor markets with almost nonexisting environmental or labor standards .  how could such a bad deal for our workers pass ?  in recent days , the administration authorized house leadership to secure votes with whatever is at hand , from extra funding , as you heard earlier , for individual members ' districts in the highway projects and energy bill , to the still incomplete appropriations bills .  members are being asked to trade away their votes for agreements that trade american jobs away .  this is just unbelievable .  tomorrow , the house is expected to vote on h.r. 3283 , the so-called united states trade rights enforcement act .  this bill does nothing to effectively address china 's unfair trade practices and their adverse impact on u.s. workers and manufacturers and the nation 's economy .  in fact , it makes it harder to stop unfair chinese trade practices .  but it has a good-sounding title .  this bill is an effort to sway votes for cafta , giving members a fig leaf to hide behind so they can say they are standing up against unfair trade agreements .  it is nothing but smoke and mirrors .  smoke and mirrors .  two years ago , these tactics worked to pass the deeply flawed medicare bill by one vote .  leadership held open a 15-minute vote for 3 hours while they twisted arms in order to ensure passage .  it is expected the same will happen with the cafta vote .  is this the way the people of the house should be acting ?  is this in the best interest of our nation ?  what message does this send the american people and our workforce and our businesses ?  and why must these votes always happen in the dark of night ?  it is because while working americans sleep , their jobs are being traded away .  mr. speaker , all americans who are watching tonight should check for themselves .  they should pay close attention to what time the cafta vote happens .  they should ask themselves why under such cover of darkness should we be voting .  it is said that midnight is the witching hour .  americans should wonder what kind of witchcraft is being passed on the house floor as we consider cafta in the dead of night .  the administration may want this deal to pass as quickly as possible before more opposition mounts , but the people who have suffered the most under our trade policies , including many of my neighbors , my coworkers and my family , and many of the good people in maine have earned the right to ask a simple question about what a new trade deal will mean to their families and get some real answers before we move forward .  one of the things i hear a lot of people say is that large stable companies , like great northern was , where i worked for over 30 years , will never move overseas because it is too costly .  i can tell my colleagues firsthand that the mill i worked at had six paper machines .  they uplifted four of them and shipped them overseas .  the mill in millinocket , the great northern paper company 's other mill , did the same thing .  it is nothing for large corporations to unbolt their machines and ship them overseas so they can get that cheap labor .  we heard earlier that in some of these cafta countries labor is less than $ 2 a day .  that is exploiting workers .  it is not to benefit the cafta nations .  it definitely will not benefit the united states of america .  so i hope members on both sides of the aisle will take a good hard look at this trade policy because we can not sell-out the american workers .  we can not sell out the american dream that we have .  we must reverse these trade policies to once again put the united states of america on the path of growth .  the only way we are going to be a secure country , the only way we are going to be able to be respected among other nations , like we have in the past , is to make sure that we have a strong economy .  when we look at what happened during world war ii , what made this country the greatest country in the world , with our greatest generation , was the ability for americans back home to work in our manufacturing industry , to work hand in hand .  but what are we going to do if we continue to ship these jobs overseas ?  it is going to weaken the united states ' ability to be the number one leader as far as our national defense .  we must vote this cafta deal down , regardless of what time in the morning it comes up and regardless of how long the leadership holds the vote open .  we must do what is right , and what is right is fair trade agreements .  