David Thomas: “we have heard a number of topics discussed this morning which, of course, is the purpose of morning business and that is…”

“we have heard a number of topics discussed this morning which, of course, is the purpose of morning business and that is fine. We will, however, at the expiration of this time, move back into the topic that is before us--the one that seems to me is of major importance right now, the issue of which we are required to take some action within the next week is trade promotion authority. It is accompanied with several other bills, and so it has become a little more difficult to understand and more difficult to pass, in fact, because of the leverages. I think we ought to focus on trade, creating jobs, and to the extent that trade stimulates our economy, and to talk a bit about that. The President has had this on his priority list for a good long time. The basic idea here is to provide the outline for the President to follow--the President and the Trade Representative and his other helpers--in terms of how we negotiate trade agreements around the world.”