Political Quotes

“when my colleagues and I vote on the U.S.- Australia Free Trade Agreement later today, I hope we do so understanding that trade with Australia currently supports over 235,000 jobs here in the United States, including over 4,400 in my home State of Illinois. Illinois exports about $1 billion in goods and services to Australia each year, from agricultural and construction machinery, to engines, turbines and power transmission equipment, to motor vehicle parts, to general purpose machinery and to agricultural products. In short, people through nearly every sector of our economy will benefit from this agreement. Mr. Speaker, we have a commitment to our citizens to enforce our trade agreements, which is why legislation I have authored which we will also consider today, the Customs Border Protection Act, increases by $2 million the resources USTR has to monitor and enforce our trade agreements. I think we can all agree that this is very important. However, some will argue that we should shut our borders and build a wall around our country. That would be devastating to our economy, and I hope a strong bipartisan vote on passage of the Australia FTA today will demonstrate that conclusively.”