On the recordJune 11, 2015
I am going to address the issues that we will be voting on tomorrow: trade adjustment assistance and the trade promotion authority, or fast track. I know that a number of my colleagues are within the sound of my voice, and I hope that if they share my views on these issues they will come down to the floor and invite me to yield them time. Until then, I am going to first focus on the trade adjustment assistance bill that will be before us tomorrow. There are so many reasons to vote against trade adjustment assistance in this form, even if it was a freestanding bill. First, it is inadequate. It has got roughly $450 million, and there is no assurance that that money will be available next year or the year after that. We know that the majority of this House is actually opposed to funding this program at all. They are doing it in an effort to pass fast track. Once fast track is passed, every effort will be made on this floor to cut this program to zero. Bait and switch, you have been warned. Second, this amount of money, who is supposed to be eligible? The proponents of fast track have said, well, we have expanded those who are eligible, not just those who lose their jobs because of the Trans- Pacific Partnership trade deal we are planning, not just those who lost their job because of NAFTA, but everybody who has lost their job because of globalization in any of its forms. Well, that is also a bait and switch.…
