Alan Grayson: “This concerns the Buy American Act and how it interacts with the work of the Trade Representative under this bill. The…”

“This concerns the Buy American Act and how it interacts with the work of the Trade Representative under this bill. The Buy American Act dates back to every Republican's favorite President, President Hoover, who signed it into office on his last day in office in 1933. It requires the U.S. Government to prefer U.S.-made products in its purchases, and there already is precedent for this in the trade organization agreement called the WTO 1996 Agreement on Government Procurement. The Buy American Act was specifically excluded from the government procurement agreements program. We are coming up upon a time when, according to news reports, the President may be presenting us with trade agreements. He may be presenting us with a fast track procedure for those trade agreements. The fast track procedure would basically give us a take-it-or-leave-it situation on these principles. Obviously, these trade agreements that have been negotiated are complex, but I think that we shouldn't be throwing out the baby with the bath water. This is an 80-year-old law. It requires that the American Government give preference to American-made products when making procurement decisions. This is a commonsense principle that guides purchasing throughout the Federal Government, as it should. Hard-earned American taxpayer dollars should be reused here at home. They should be going back into our economy and putting Americans back to work.…”