Vicente Gonzalez: “Of course, I rise in strong support for passage of H.R. 254. This piece of legislation was not intended in any way to…”

“Of course, I rise in strong support for passage of H.R. 254. This piece of legislation was not intended in any way to revisit, reopen, recast, or rescind the North American Free Trade Agreement, the treaty itself; rather, it is to improve an institution that was created to assist in any problems that would be encountered as a result of the treaty itself. This is a bill to authorize the President to agree to certain amendments to the binational agreement establishing the North American Development Bank. H.R. 254 was passed by the House Committee on Financial Services on February 13 by voice vote. Last October, H.R. 5400, a bill exactly like 254, passed the House by unanimous consent. So I will remind my colleagues, Members of this House, that we are revisiting a piece of legislation that was passed by unanimous consent in the 107th Congress. Unfortunately, the Senate failed to take up H.R. 5400, necessitating its resubmission in this Congress.”