Political Quotes

“I will keep pushing for consideration of my amendments, which are being banned from consideration on this floor, because if we are going to have a ``robust and open amendment process,'' we should, in fact, have a robust and open amendment process and consider these serious issues before us. So let's turn to a third area, which is the fact that the Trans- Pacific Partnership--you hear robust labor protections that level the playing field. Well, a level playing field would involve roughly similar standards between countries. So is there anything that levels in any way the vast difference between the minimum wage in some of the prospective TPP countries and other countries? The answer is no, not a thing. The single most important labor differential between the nations is not addressed in any shape or form. So if we were to look at the minimum wages, we would find, as the Senator from California noted earlier, that Brunei and Singapore have no minimum wage at all. Mexico and Vietnam are under $1 in minimum wage. Malaysia, Peru, and Chile are under $2.50. So basically we have 7 countries out of this group of 12 that have a minimum wage that either doesn't exist or is under roughly $2.50. That is very different from the other five countries in this agreement.…”