On the recordJune 12, 2015
That is absolutely correct. Furthermore, the document that we viewed was a draft. It is not complete. If you read it, virtually every page of it has a little footnote that says, oh, we are still working on this page here. So, yeah, we are fast-tracking something that we can't see, we are not really going to be a party to the negotiations, and we can't control the outcome of it. So I think we should do that with great caution. I just want to close with this. I want to say that the vote today was not a referendum on free trade. It was not a referendum on whether it benefits our country to trade with other countries. We know that. We believe it. We have seen it. Trade is good. But this was a referendum on giving the President more authority; this was a referendum on voting for something we can't see, we can't verify; and this was a referendum on a huge, giant document. It reminds me of some of the omnibus bills we are given 2 days to read that come to this body, 1600 pages. But this was a referendum on the process. That is why they couldn't get the bill passed today. TPA is not a law yet. It didn't pass today, but we support free trade. I know my colleague does. We just don't support the TPA.
