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A group of nearly 40 Democratic lawmakers is praising the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative for reportedly considering updates to free trade agreements with Canada, Mexico and Colombia that would rein in investor protections. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce earlier this month accused the agency of “secretly renegotiating” the investment chapters of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement through side letters, calling on the Biden administration not to continue with the effort. But a group of Democrats, led by House Ways & Means Committee member Lloyd Doggett (TX), House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro (CT) and Senate Finance Committee member Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), argues such efforts are necessary to prevent corporations from “weaponiz[ing] undemocratic international tribunals to attack domestic policies and prioritiz[ing] narrow corporate interests at the expense of those countries’ workers, consumers, small businesses, and the environment.

Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat, said he hopes funding for pediatric cancer research is added back to the spending bill as Congress scrambles to pass a bill to fund the government on Friday.