Politics

Bush Seeks Fast Track In Big Easy

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 14, 2002 / 8:21 AM EST / CBS

On a busy New Orleans dock, President Bush on Tuesday called on the Senate to give him the power to keep American exports flowing.

With longshoremen at his side, the president argued that expanded trade creates jobs for Americans. And he tried to step up pressure on the Democrat-controlled Senate to give him "fast track" authority to negotiate new trade deals, CBS News Correspondent Mark Knoller reports.

"This isn't a Republican issue. This isn't a Democratic issue. This is a jobs issue," said Mr. Bush. "If you trade more, there are more jobs for hard-working Americans."

The president was closing out his two-day, three-state harvest-to-export tour in New Orleans, the last American stop for many U.S. farm goods heading to overseas markets.

Many Democrats and labor and conservation groups oppose fast-track because they fear it would threaten American jobs and make it easier for polluters to challenge environmental-protection laws.

The Senate is to vote on the matter early this year.

Mr. Bush also said the Senate needs to pass a national energy bill, which is currently stalled.

"A national energy policy will help us conserve more, it will help up produce more" and will create jobs, he said.

The president's stage was surrounded by a backdrop of shipping containers. To one side, was a container ship and a huge crane used to move the containers.

Agriculture exports were the theme of Mr. Bush's trip — a three-state swing along the route taken by grain and other farm products.

But after spending much of Monday in the farm belt, he turned his attention to a New Orleans specialty — seafood — Monday night. The president dined in a private room at Antoine's in the French Quarter, joined by Gov. Mike Foster, New Orleans real estate developer Joseph Canizaro, the governor's executive counsel, Bernie Boudreaux Jr., and several advisers.

Mr. Bush ate the restaurant's famed oysters Rockefeller, grilled filet of pompano topped with lump crabmeat and baked Alaska for dessert. Two Secret Service agents watched assistant chef Ernest Jack prepare the dishes in the restaurant's kitchen. Jack said it was the first time he cooked a meal for a president.

"I was a little nervous," said the 27-year veteran of the restaurant. "I wanted to make sure everything was right."

Mr. Bush's scraped and bruised left cheek was clearly visible as he left the restaurant around 8 p.m. He paused before climbing into his limousine and waved to the large crowd of onlookers that had gathered behind a police line at St. Louis and Royal streets a half-block away. He leaned across the back seat as the car passed the cheering throng, giving them an energetic wave and a thumbs-up sign.

Th president spent the night at the downtown Windsor Court Hotel, the perimeter of which was barricaded, restricting both auto and pedestrian traffic. All other hotel guests went through heightened security checks at the entrance to the building.

teel imports also play a huge part in business at the Port of New Orleans, the site Mr. Bush chose to make a public speech. The Bush administration has until early March to decide whether to set tariffs on 12 of 33 categories of steel imports, which the U.S. International Trade Commission says have hurt domestic steel companies.

Grain often leaves on ships on which steel was imported, so curbing steel imports would hurt the farm trade, the port's director, Gary LaGrange, has said.