Chris Dodd: “let me begin by commending, again, the chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Grassley, and Senator Baucus, the…”

“let me begin by commending, again, the chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Grassley, and Senator Baucus, the ranking Democrat, and members of that committee. It is a very important committee of the Senate, obviously. They are charged with the responsibility of dealing with trade agreements. The implications of these trade agreements obviously go beyond just the jurisdiction of the Finance Committee. It can be argued, I think very correctly, that these agreements have huge foreign policy implications, national security implications as well as, obviously, labor implications. So the Finance Committee is asked to grapple with very compelling issues that touch on a lot of other subject matters when they deal with it. I rise today to speak about this Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement, known as the CAFTA-DR agreement. Yesterday evening, I came to the floor to express my hopes that this agreement could be strengthened in the waning hours before a vote on its implementing legislation. I did so because I very much want to support this agreement. Let me explain why again. Many of my colleagues, I suppose, know the reason. As long as I have been a Member of this body I have served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I have, for most of those years, been either the chairman or the ranking Democrat of the subcommittee dealing with Latin America.…”