Political Quotes

“I will be brief. It would be an understatement to say there have been strong differences of opinion here in this Chamber and in our country with respect to this legislation. I have said from the very beginning that opponents of this effort--trade promotion authority--have a number of very valid points. There is no question in my mind, colleagues, that there has been way too much secrecy in the past, so Senator Hatch and I set out to make some very significant changes in that. Now, starting with the TPP but with all other agreements, the American people will have that agreement in their hands for close to 4 months before anybody votes here in the Senate or in the House on TPP or a trade agreement. I think that is a step toward a sunshine trade policy. Second, I thought opponents were spot-on with respect to their comments that we needed a completely new regime with respect to enforcing our trade laws. Again and again the American people say: What are you talking about in terms of passing a new trade deal if you aren't doing a better job of enforcing the laws on the books? So we set about to put in place a tough enforce act to go after cheats. We had Senator Brown's leveling the playing field, which I think is a very important piece of legislation, and an early warning system so that for the first time, rather than waiting until it is too late, businesses and labor unions and others would see what is coming. I think that is a significant step forward.…”