On the recordMarch 18, 2015
I am pleased to join my colleagues, and I appreciated the wonderful remarks of the senior Senator from South Dakota, Mr. Thune. He is working very hard on that committee and really making a difference, as I think most people on the committee are trying to do. But he makes a difference, and I truly appreciated his remarks today. I am pleased to join my colleagues on the floor to talk about the importance of Trade Promotion Authority, or TPA, to the health of our Nation's economy. At the beginning of this Congress, I, along with many of my colleagues, stated publicly that trade was one of the few areas where the new Republican Congress would be able to find common ground with President Obama. I still believe that is the case. I chatted with him just last week--one of the few conversations I have had with him since he has been President--and I was very appreciative. He would like to get this done, and he is right. The Obama administration is currently negotiating some of the most ambitious trade agreements in our Nation's history. The first is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, an Asia-Pacific trade agreement being negotiated between the United States and 11 other countries. On the other side of the world, the United States is negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with 28 countries of the European Union; that is called T-TIP. Together, these two trade agreements have the potential to greatly expand access to U.S.…
