On the recordJune 27, 2018
I appreciate Senator Corker's comments. I appreciate a little less those of Senator Toomey, who tried to say that I was thinking that the People's Republic of China has an economy we should emulate. What I actually said--and I have seen him do this before. What I actually said is that China's Government fights for its national interests by putting people to work, and our trade policy, for 25 years--since NAFTA, since PNTR, since CAFTA, since South Korea, many of them pushed by Presidents whom I have stood up for--has undermined American national security and domestic security. So I just reject that. But I appreciate Senator Corker's comments about voting on this. This is a major change in policy, with no legislative hearings, with no real discussion or debate. It is a bit rich when the majority party talks about our not allowing votes when, to start with, there was the Supreme Court nominee of 3 years ago and all the times we tried to do a transportation bill, important in our Banking Committee, as Senator Corker knows. He wasn't really part of the obstruction, but I just find it a bit rich. The reason is that Senator Hatch has already said he wants to do hearings to really understand what it would mean to roll back years of having these trade remedies, like 232. What would it mean? We have lost 7,000 jobs in the steel industry in my State.…





