Neal Dunn: “I rise in support of this historic free trade agreement with Australia. Australia has been a true friend and ally. They…”

“I rise in support of this historic free trade agreement with Australia. Australia has been a true friend and ally. They have been there when it counted the most, on the shores of Normandy, on the streets of Baghdad when the odds seemed insurmountable and the light of victory was far, far away. Over 50 years ago, we began an alliance with Australia based on mutual security needs. Today we build on our security alliance in the past with an economic alliance for the future. Bismarck once said that "politics is the art of the possible." While that is certainly true and an accurate description of the negotiations of this agreement, this trade agreement is also about a world of possibilities. There is a common thread that binds the fabric of both nations' past to the future. We are both nations that are built on possibilities. Whether our citizens arrived at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts or the rocks in Sydney, many came for the possibility of new beginnings and the possibility of determining their own destiny; and just like those before us, this generation of Americans and Australians will paint the canvas of this trade agreement with their entrepreneurial spirit. In doing so, we are reminded that the strengths of our nations are not in our governments, but in the thousands of our citizens who are turning possibilities into reality; and it is time for this Congress to make this trade agreement a reality. This is a trade agreement that creates jobs.…”