Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, 4 years ago, I joined my Republican colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee and voted to give the President of the United States trade promotion authority--4 years ago. I have been a supporter of trade promotion authority for a long time, but I also realize that when it comes to trade, there are issues on which we have to work on together.

We are at a juncture now where it is hard to move forward here in the Senate. I would say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that there are basic things about the future of America in a global economy--the American people want to be assured that there are going to be tools for them to compete.

So the fact that the Finance Committee and the negotiators of the trade promotion authority spent months and months on whether we were going to have TAA--which is a program that helps laid-off workers who are impacted by trade--because some House conservatives did not support trade adjustment authority--workers being retrained when they are affected by trade agreements--we spent months and months because some conservatives in the House do not believe in government and do not believe in this program that helps support laid-off workers.

Then we had to spend weeks and weeks out here because people on the other side of the aisle--again at the behest of conservatives in the House--did not want to support enforcement.

Now we are at this juncture because the same conservatives, because of an ideological belief by the Heritage Foundation--not something about business and labor, no; actually, business and labor support export tools, such as a credit agency that helps them sell their products. Again, this conservative group is holding up trade legislation because they do not think that it meets their political standards, as my colleague from South Carolina said, Senator Graham, that it is all about some private organization they are trying to politically atone to.

I say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that I have been a supporter of TPA for a long time, but I do not plan to support a cloture motion and I do not plan to support moving ahead until we stop catering to this very minority group that does not support the basic tools the American people want to see when it comes to trade. They want to know that if they lose their jobs, they can get retrained. They want to know that if export markets are open, they will have some ability to sell their products to those developing markets that may not have a bank there but can help get financial support from a bank in the United States with the help of a Federal export credit agency. And yes, we have to have some basic tools on enforcement.

So if the other side of the aisle wants to resolve these problems and move ahead on a trade agreement, they have to stop catering to the conservatives in the House--and probably some of them do not even support trade overall--and start working with the people who do support trade.

As I said 4 years ago in the Finance Committee when I supported TPA, these policies are important tools for the U.S. economy. I feel strongly that in the developing world, trade can be a great asset in helping stabilize regions. I do not want to hold down other growing middle classes around the globe. We do not want to lose jobs here in the United States because of it.

So let's have the tools that go along with trade, and let's get these bills passed. But if we are going to continue to cater to a group in the House who claims they do not want government, I do not see how, in this debate, we are going give the American people the tools that will give them security.

I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source