Darrell Issa: “I would like to speak about jobs. Before I came to this body, I spent over 20 years in the American electronics…”

“I would like to speak about jobs. Before I came to this body, I spent over 20 years in the American electronics business, and I sold freely in those countries that had free trade; and I was either locked out or severely limited in the countries that we had not opened trade with. I would like to remind my friends on both sides of the aisle that we cannot pick our friends and enemies on free trade. Some of the most protectionist countries are our close allies. In fact, we need this kind of trade promotion authority if we are going to open those markets, many of them with European countries that today freely trade between each other and, in fact, are limiting our products. So, Mr. Speaker, I strongly rise in support of this rule and of the underlying language. I ask for my Democrat colleagues to please go beyond the 22 and vote this up.”