Republican House Members Receive Rubber Stamps from Fight for the Future Ahead of Plans to “Fast Track” President Obama’s Secret Trade Agenda

The package included a satirical letter from the President and an actual rubber stamp with the words, “I approve President Obama’s secret trade deal”

Contact: Evan Greer, 978-852-6457, evangreer@gmail.com

WASHINGTON, DC –– Late last week, House Republicans started to receive hand-delivered packages in large white envelopes addressed to each Representative by name and purportedly “from” President Barack Obama. The packages contained a satirical letter to Congress from the President asking Republicans, “Please rubber stamp my secret trade agenda.” The packages also contained a rubber stamp of the President’s face along with the text, “I approve President Obama’s secret trade deal.” Finally, the packages contained a fact sheet headlined, “Facts to Ignore when Rubber Stamping my Trade Deal.”

See PHOTOS and VIDEO of the packages being delivered here: http://tumblr.fightforthefuture.org/post/121088291048/photos-video-house-republicans-receive

Today, the digital rights group, Fight for the Future, revealed that they were behind the action. Fight for the Future issued the following statement, which was also mailed anonymously to several media outlets:

“People from across the political spectrum oppose Fast Track/Trade Promotion Authority because we have learned that when our government acts in secret, it is never in the public’s best interest.

Republicans who claim to advocate for individual liberty should know better than to vote for legislation that gives unprecedented powers to the executive branch to make decisions in secret that affect everything from national sovereignty, to U.S. patent laws, to internet freedom.

Any Republican who decides to go against the majority of their constituents and rubberstamp the Trans-Pacific Partnership will learn come election that paying lip service to liberty while endorsing tyranny is a fast track to losing the faith of the American public.”

Fight for the Future Campaign Director Evan Greer added, “Given all the secrecy surrounding insider deals for Fast Track legislation and classified agreements like the TPP and TISA, we thought it was apropos to have a bit of mystery surrounding our protest too. Congress is supposed to listen to their constituents, not party leadership, not the White House, not industry lobbyists––the people they represent. We sent them these stamps as a reminder, and to show them that the public is watching, and will remember how they vote.”

Fight for the Future made headlines in March when they flew a 30’ blimp over several of Senator Ron Wyden’s town hall meetings calling for him to “Save the Internet” by opposing Fast Track for the TPP.

Fight for the Future is a nonprofit that has driven more than 100,000 emails and phone calls to Congress in recent months, rallied more than 7,500 websites for an online protest, and helped coordinate a letter to Congress from more than 250 tech companies expressing transparency and tech related concerns about Fast Track legislation. The group is best known for their role organizing the massive online protests against SOPA, the Internet Slowdown for net neutrality, and the Reset The Net campaign for online privacy, which was endorsed by Edward Snowden.

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