On the recordOctober 3, 2011
I rise today in strong support of the bipartisan legislation we will be considering this week regarding the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011. I am very pleased it received overwhelming support for us to proceed to consideration of this most critical legislation. This day has been a long time in the making, if you ask those of us who have been calling on our government, under the leadership of both Democrats and Republicans, to hold our foreign competitors accountable when they violate our trade laws. In that respect I want to express my gratitude to my colleague from Ohio, Senator Sherrod Brown, with whom I have partnered in repeatedly calling for a vote on this crucial legislation, as well as the Senator from New York, Senator Schumer, and the Senator from South Carolina, Senator Graham, for also being with us and working on this legislation to address all of the facets of this issue that have been long overdue in consideration by the Congress. This day has been far too long in coming for the millions of American workers who are out of work and whose wages have been decimated as a result of our inability to compete with unfairly subsidized Chinese imports. Since Congress first began requiring the Treasury to analyze the exchange rate policies of foreign countries in 1988, China has been cited as a currency manipulator five times, all occurring between 1992 and 1994.…





