Porter Goss: “I come to the floor to catalog the extraordinary, bipartisan, bicameral efforts now underway to provide urgent relief…”

“I come to the floor to catalog the extraordinary, bipartisan, bicameral efforts now underway to provide urgent relief for Florida's winter fruit and vegetable industry, particularly the tomato growers. We in Florida have been acutely aware of the damage that has been done to those growers because of import surges from Mexico. Thanks to our Florida delegation's efforts these past days, this problem has become a priority at the highest levels in Washington, in this Congress and downtown in the administration. Everyone now understands that, although NAFTA has generally been working well for our State and the rest of the United States, there has been a clear breakdown of safeguard and relief measures for some of our winter produce industries. Yesterday the Florida delegation--including both Senator Mack and Senator Graham--made a bipartisan push to attach relief language to the continuing resolution to correct a technical problem faced by Florida growers because of existing definitions in section 202 of the 1974 Trade Act. Appropriations Chairman Bob Livingston, busy as he was worrying about keeping the Government open as budget matters are sorted out, made heroic attempts to clear the path for this important fix. And he succeeded in the House. Unfortunately, we hit a snag in the other body relating to adding last minute measures to the bill, and the effort failed. But this fight is not over.…”