Rob Portman: “I thank the Presiding Officer for allowing me to speak briefly about an amendment I am offering to the trade promotion…”

“I thank the Presiding Officer for allowing me to speak briefly about an amendment I am offering to the trade promotion authority legislation. Also, I was not here earlier because I was unavoidably detained. I was on a flight to arrive at National Airport, and because of thunderstorms, they diverted us to Richmond, VA, where I spent about an hour this evening. If I had been here, I would have voted yes on both the trade adjustment assistance legislation and also the religious freedom legislation that came before this Chamber earlier this evening. Again, I appreciate the opportunity to speak now about an amendment I am offering to the underlying legislation, the trade promotion authority. This amendment is regarding currency manipulation, something we have talked a lot about in this Chamber over the last week. Now is the opportunity for us to speak with our votes on behalf of the people we represent, who believe that, yes, we should be trading with other countries. In fact, I strongly believe that we should be expanding our exports and, therefore, I support trade-opening agreements that could be negotiated under a trade promotion authority.…”