NO on HR 283 - Panama Canal Bill

Today I take pen in hand to write and urge you to vote NO on H.R. 283, a bill to authorize the President to negotiate for re-acquisition of the Panama Canal.   As you know, the Panama Canal is operated by Panama under a treaty of territorial neutrality to ensure transit of all nations ships and goods, and it obviously is a time and cost saving measure for all manner of businesses.   The only possible way the United States could simply re-acquire the Panama Canal is through outright war on Panama, a situation would arise that would involve every nation on Earth to rally against the United States because it would affect them all. The very notion of going to war, breaking treaties without negotiation or any just cause to do so is ludicrous.   Every ship that goes through the canal pays fees. You can negotiate the fees, but there’s no clause in that neutrality treaty to reassert control.   Panama has run the Canal efficiently, and Panama’s voters approved a 5-billion dollar expansion of the Canal, not the US.   Costs have increased. This is owing to the Canal’s use of fresh water pumped into the locks to allow transit of ships. When climate change driven drought occurs, as has been widely and fairly reported, costs will rise, and there was even a short period where there was a considerable number of ships unable to transit the locks because of the low water.   To reiterate, please vote NO on this ludicrous idea. I’m not willing to pay taxes to support an unjust war, nor the cost increase that will surely follow when we have to operate it or hire the Panamanian engineers to run it.   Thank you to you and your staff for your service to our district.