Blunt tells how CAFTA vote came about

In an article in The Washington Post, Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt gave an interesting insight into how legislation gets crafted. I have reprinted a segment from that article, which was about the 217-215 vote by which the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) was passed:

Mr. Blunt said the winning result was partly because lawmakers in the weeks and days leading up to the vote had had a chance to vent their frustrations with illegal immigration and rising competition from China.
In addition to the broad overtures, lawmakers also were cognizant that the highway and energy bills were nearing completion, and that both contained projects important for each district.
"It's certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that members come and say, 'Gee, how am I doing with my projects that I already have in the highway bill?' And we probably weren't beyond saying, 'We'll check and see how you're doing with those projects,' " Mr. Blunt said. "We don't do near as much of that as people would think," he added.