Democrats Mark DeLay's Exit by Targeting Island Manufacturers

WASHINGTON — Billing it as a fitting "going-away present" for Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), three Democratic House members Wednesday filed a bill to raise the minimum wage in the Northern Marianas and tighten immigration standards for the U.S. territory, which critics say has become a haven for apparel industry sweatshops.

Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), the lead sponsor, said DeLay repeatedly and corruptly blocked earlier efforts to impose U.S. labor and immigration standards, in order to help convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who represented the Pacific territory and textile firms there.
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"Let's give Tom DeLay a real going-away present," said Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-El Monte), who joined Miller and Rep. John M. Spratt Jr. (D-S.C.) in filing the legislation.
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Noting that bills to raise the island wage passed the Senate repeatedly, only to be blocked by DeLay and his colleagues in the House, Miller said the Texas Republican and Abramoff were "running a protection racket."....

DeLay did not respond to a request for comment.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-saipan8jun08,1,4154397.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

Certainly an appropriate response to the long-awaited departure of a kingpin crook. Thanks for the post. Don't delay, Delay! Hit the road. The termites miss you.

Anti-sweatshop leaders and some members of Congress have long sought to increase wages and protect the islands’ garment workers, most of whom are women, from what amounts to indentured servitude. But their efforts were repeatedly stalled in Congress. And who was among the biggest opponents of reform? None other than the notorious lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose tentacles reached deep into House Republican leadership. And who was one of the loudest congressional cheerleaders against reform? Tom DeLay, who praised the islands as “a petri dish of capitalism.”

In the midst of what could be the largest congressional scandal in history, Ms. sent an investigative team to the Northern Marianas to examine firsthand the consequences of these lobbying efforts and congressional inaction on real women’s lives. Plus, we wanted to track down reports of forced abortions on the islands. Could it be that virulent opponents of abortion, such as DeLay, were contributing to conditions where desperate pregnant workers had no choice but to have an abortion?

http://www.msmagazine.com/spring2006/paradise.asp

“They were running a protection racket,” said Miller. “DeLay and Abramoff protected the Marianas garment industry from congressional scrutiny and were rewarded handsomely for it with trips, lucrative contracts, campaign money and more. The most exploited women in the world, and the American legislative process, paid the price.

“DeLay used his office to block Congress from considering our bipartisan reforms. He told key committee chairman not to hold hearings on these abuses. The bill we are introducing is a test of whether that protection racket continues today.”

The protection of the abusive industries in the Mariana Islands was part of what the Washington Post recently described as a “criminal enterprise being run out of DeLay's leadership offices.” DeLay extolled the Saipan garment industry as “a perfect petri dish of capitalism” that should be replicated in the mainland U.S. as well.

http://www.house.gov/georgemiller/press/rel6706.html

i thought now the freak can go knock himself out with it!

good riddance asshole!