Political Quotes

“In our fast-changing world, the global economy looms large. America has long been the leader in promoting freer and fairer trade, promoting the economy at home while strengthening ties overseas. The current issue that is before us now deals with a trade promotion authority and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an agreement with 12 countries, representing almost 40 percent of the global economy. After the recent bipartisan vote in the Senate on the trade promotion authority and related package, attention now shifts to the House where we are likely to be voting on this in the next couple of weeks. Many confuse support for the trade promotion authority with the TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. They are two distinct items. The Trans-Pacific Partnership is an ongoing series of negotiations which has yet to be concluded. Indeed, one of the reasons we are looking at trade promotion authority now, establishing the rules of the game and how Congress will evaluate and process it, is to make sure that we get into the final stages. Trade promotion authority historically, something we have done repeatedly in the past, provides for Congress to vote on an up-or-down basis on a trade agreement once it is finalized. This is what happens in negotiations routinely in the United States, an up-or-down vote. I find it somewhat ironic that some of my friends in organized labor think that it somehow should be negotiated in Congress, that it ought to be subject to amendment in Congress.…”