Pelosi To President: Don't Send Colombia Trade Deal

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) urged President Bush on Thursday not to send a controversial trade agreement with Colombia to Capitol Hill next week.

"I don't recommend it," Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press briefing.

Despite the persistent rumors that Bush plans to send the bill to Congress next Tuesday, Pelosi said the administration has not alerted her to its plans to start a trade clock that gives lawmakers in the House and Senate a combined 90 days to act.

Democrats have broadly opposed many of the administration's previous free trade pacts, making Pelosi's job more difficult should she decide to cooperate with the administration in pushing the Colombia agreement. She and other Democratic leaders are asking the administration to agree on terms to assist unemployed workers in the U.S. who have been laid off as the result of jobs moving overseas.