Paul Tonko: “Thank you, Representative Garamendi. If I could just associate my comments with the representative from Ohio, Marcy…”

“Thank you, Representative Garamendi. If I could just associate my comments with the representative from Ohio, Marcy Kaptur talked about the impoverishment factor around the world. These negotiated agreements are much more than just trade barriers and tariffs. They become public policy. When you lose American jobs, that is only the beginning of the story. We have made a situation very critically tough here, and we have resulted in impoverishing workers around the world, so that is an undoable, unsustainable outcome. I think back when Ms. Kaptur spoke of the exodus of jobs and the incremental steps that took them eventually offshore. I think of the entire passageway of the Erie Canal system that drove a westward movement, reached Ohio, and then eventually allowed for the development to the west coast. You think of that, and many a person, many a worker, tethered the American Dream to those mill towns that were given birth to by that Erie Canal system. That was the empowerment of this Nation--and to think that that whole history has been rejected. A lot of the creative genius came from the immigrant who was working on those assembly lines. We need to remember that history. We must have it speak to us. This whole idea of inserting public policy into these agreements or, again, circumventing our responsibilities here in the House--people who we represent at home need to ask us: Where are we on fast track?…”