Thomas Daschle: “for too long, Congress has been deeply divided between those who argued that free trade has no downside, and others who…”

“for too long, Congress has been deeply divided between those who argued that free trade has no downside, and others who said it is a complete disaster. As a result, we did not give the President the authority to aggressively pursue new markets for American goods and services, nor did we do enough to help the workers who were being hurt by trade. Today we stand on the verge of recognizing in law a basic truth: our economy as a whole benefits enormously from expanded global trade. But some workers, due to no fault of their own, are hurt by it. We could not have reached this point without the leadership shown by Chairman Baucus. Simply put, Senator Baucus engineered an agreement that few thought was possible. I have no doubt our nation will be stronger because of it. I want to thank Senator Grassley, the Ranking member, and Senator Hatch on the Republican side for their work in crafting a bipartisan bill. I want to thank Senator Breaux, who worked so effectively to help us achieve the initial compromise that got us into the conference . . . and then helping find the compromise that got us out . . . with this agreement. And, finally, I want to say a special word of thanks to Senator rockefeller for his work in the conference. He was an incredibly strong and passionate advocate for the health care provisions and the entire worker package. He did the workers of West Virginia, and this country, proud.”