Political Quotes

“Madam President, I also believe profoundly that increasing our exports, improving our trading opportunities for businesses in this country can do a lot to get Americans back to work. It employs a lot of people across this country today, and it is important we get these trade agreements done. I couldn't agree more with what my colleague from Oregon had to say about that in terms of its impact on the economy. What is unfortunate, in my view, is the fact we have had to wait so long to get where we are. We have had trade agreements now that have been teed up, literally signed back in December of 2006 for Colombia, Panama, and South Korea, in 2007, and it strikes me that at the least we have lost a tremendous amount of opportunity and a tremendous amount of market share as a result of the delay. I would have hoped yesterday we would have passed trade promotion authority, because that allows us at least to be at the table to negotiate trade agreements in the future. We have been basically locked out of that since trade promotion authority lapsed back in 2007. This is a global economy, and the world is passing us by. Every single day we are not engaged, that we are not out there negotiating trade agreements with countries around the world somebody else is, and every single day we are losing opportunities for American business to export and to grow our economy and to create jobs here at home.…”