On the recordJune 11, 2015
I thank the chairman for his leadership. Texas is lucky to have him. Ladies and gentlemen, today and tomorrow, we are not voting on a trade agreement. We are not voting on a trade agreement. In fact, we are voting on a bill called TPA, which is this. It is public. We can all read it. Our constituents can read it. We are not voting on anything today or tomorrow that we can't read, that is secret. A lot of confusion out there. Here is what TPA is, and you have heard it before. It is a process. It is a process where Congress inserts itself to what the executive branch already can do, which is negotiate a trade agreement. But it is a process that, quite frankly, empowers the Congress. It tells the President, as the lead negotiator, this is what we would like him to do, and we are going to hold our authority, and we are going to say whatever the President negotiates, we are going to either approve it or not. But you know what? By passing TPA, we are going to require that, whatever is negotiated, the public is given 60 days to review, which doesn't have to be done unless TPA is passed. Mr. Chairman, I didn't have 6 hours to review ObamaCare--not 6 hours. My constituents will have 60 days before the President can sign any deal he negotiates. That is what TPA does. It inserts Congress. It inserts the American people into any trade agreement the President-- this one or the next--negotiates.…
