On the recordMay 14, 2015
if the chairman of the Committee on Finance and Senator Wyden will indulge me, I would like 2 or 3 minutes to explain the amendment and the importance of it. One of the most important reasons for the vote on Tuesday, I believe, is that a significant number of Members of this body and I think the public--those who support fast-track and those who oppose it--all believe that enforcement is important and assisting workers is important. So it would be a tragedy to send TPA to the desk of the President for him to sign, leading the way to at least two other trade agreements--the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the United States- European Union agreement, the so-called TTIP trade agreement--without enforcement and without assistance for workers. We make decisions in this body, those who support this fast-track and the trade agreements, and we know--even the most enthusiastic supporters and cheerleaders for free trade acknowledge there are winners and losers when it comes to trade agreements. Some people, because of dislocation due to these trade agreements, dislocation in the economy, lose their jobs in places such as Wheeling, WV, and Bellaire, OH, right across the Ohio River. So it is important that we take care of those workers who lose their jobs because of our actions.…





