Political Quotes

“Madam President, this is an exceptional thing we are debating right now. We are talking about limiting our own constitutional power. We are talking about a trade promotion authority act that would restrict our ability to offer and debate amendments on free-trade agreements. We have been told this is the only way we can move forward on things such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the soon-to-be-completed European free-trade agreement. There are great disagreements about whether that is necessary. It is hard to understand why we hold trade to a fundamentally different standard than so many other things that are vitally necessary for our economy to move forward. Why not have a different process to pass immigration reform or energy reform or tax reform? Those are just as, if not more, necessary to economic growth than trade. But in that we are talking about limiting our ability to offer amendments to a trade agreement, it would be the height of irony if we were to conduct that debate in a way that limited our ability to also offer amendments on the very act that takes away our power to amend the trade agreements. So here is just a point on process. I am fairly new to this body. This is the first time I have been in the Senate debating a trade agreement. Certainly, it is the first time I have been in the Congress to debate a fast-track bill, a trade promotion authority.…”