Ron Kind: “I thank my friend for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this legislation. It is a bill that came out of…”

“I thank my friend for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this legislation. It is a bill that came out of the Senate 99-1, with wide bipartisan support; and why not? It has worked well for us in the past. It will work well for us in the future. This is our opportunity to meaningfully engage the African nations when it comes to trade preferences to make sure that we maintain a healthy and strong relationship with a vibrant and growing area of the world, along with some other developing nations, and Haiti, for instance, that Mr. Rangel has been particularly focused on, too. I would encourage my colleagues to support it. This also fixes a problem that we have had in regard to the trade agenda that we are trying to move forward on this week. There was some concern about how the Trade Adjustment Assistance bill was going to be paid for, what offsets were being used. That now is being fixed in this bill as well through a bipartisan agreement. I commend the chair of the Ways and Means committee and the Republican leadership for their willingness to compromise on this issue, to make sure that this does not become a hurdle or a roadblock to advancing our trade agenda as a nation. So that is in the bill. I think Members of Congress need confidence that that offset has been fixed and paid for.…”