On the recordMay 21, 2015
I appreciate that. I am proud to stand with them on this. And I do respect Senator Hatch. He is my dear friend. But let's be clear. When you go down to that secret room--and I had the same experience as Senator Manchin. I couldn't take the proper staffers because they didn't have the clearance. This isn't about fighting ISIS or the war in Syria or any other very high security matter. It is about a trade deal that is supposed to be negotiated in the best interests of the people of this country. All my friends are saying is that before we give this President the ability to fast-track this deal, let's look at it. Here is what happens when he gets fast-track authority: Not one Member of this Senate and not one Member of the House can offer any amendment whatsoever. I think the Senator from West Virginia was very clear on the point. What if we find out that there is something horrible in there for our State? The Senator from Massachusetts pointed out that there are whole parts of this deal--and I know I am not speaking out of turn here--where it just says that they are still being negotiated. So how the heck do we know what we are even voting on? And here we have given away the store in this last vote so that we will not have an opportunity to make it better. When my friend talked about how many jobs were lost in West Virginia after NAFTA, my heart sank. Those are a lot of jobs in a smaller State. My State is a large State. We lost about 80,000-plus jobs. That is a lot.…
