Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I am so pleased we are making strong progress on the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, and I hope we will get this bill done within a day. It is very important, especially to States with rural areas, such as the Presiding Officer's and mine, and I am glad we are starting to make headway. U.S.-Canada Relations

Today, Mr. President, I am here to talk about something else, and that is the importance of the U.S. relationship with Canada. Senator Crapo and I cochair the Canada-United States Interparliamentary Group and have been working in the trenches on everything from softwood lumber, to the Detroit-Windsor bridge crossing, to issues of intellectual property, to dairy, to beef, and with the arrival of Prime Minister Trudeau, this work has suddenly gotten a little more glamorous. We are excited about that and excited about the Nation's newfound interest in our important relationship with Canada. In fact, Canada is one of our largest trading partners. There is so much business that goes on between the Presiding Officer's State and Canada, as well as my State and Canada. Prime Minister Trudeau is bringing a newfound interest in this work.

Many of our two countries' priorities, which include national security, infrastructure, and energy, align closely. During this visit, I expect our relationship will deepen, and we will hear more about how our two nations will work together on our shared priorities. We hope they will discuss hockey, which is something that is very important to Minnesota and Canada. A number of our hockey players have actually come from Canada, and a number of the Canadian hockey players have come from Minnesota. But we think there are other important topics as well.

First, I will start with our economic relationship--a relationship that supports 9 million U.S. jobs. Canada purchases more goods from America than any other nation. If you asked people what country in the world is the biggest purchaser of U.S. goods, I think they might not predict that the answer is Canada. Canada is the No. 1 buyer of goods produced in 35 out of 50 States, including Minnesota. Last year Canadians bought $376 billion worth of goods made by American businesses, and it is a two-way street. The United States imports more than $300 billion in Canadian goods every year.

Over the years, to enhance this relationship, we have taken many important steps to improve the flow of travellers and goods across our common border. In the wake of September 11, we created a U.S. passport card, which is a secure but less expensive and more convenient alternative to a traditional passport. We removed unnecessary double screening of luggage--a bipartisan bill I passed with Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri--and then expanded the number of preclearance airports, which allows American security personnel to be in those airports. I think we are up to eight now.

We have agreed to build a new bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, MI. It is a source of great concern. The bridge that is there now is privately owned and has huge lines. It is not a very good situation. So a new bridge is in the works, and we are very excited that our two countries worked on that together.

I especially want to acknowledge Ambassador Doer, the longtime Ambassador from Canada to the United States who worked on that with our two Ambassadors. I also want to acknowledge the newly named Canadian Ambassador, Ambassador David MacNaughton, who will continue the strong diplomatic relations between our countries.

Our national security partnership is also incredibly important. We share the longest border in the world with Canada. Obviously border issues are important, but more than that, Canada, as part of NATO, has worked with us not only in Afghanistan, where they supplied many troops and now provide funding there, but they are also on the frontline with ISIS. They actually have hundreds of trainers working on the frontline there. I would be remiss not to mention them standing up to Russian aggression in Ukraine. Believe it or not, Canada has a major Ukrainian population, and they have been our friend in dealing with Ukraine as well.

Prime Minister Trudeau has also been a leader in welcoming refugees to the country. Right after his election, he showed up at the airport to greet Syrian refugees. It was not just a symbol; they actually brought in 25,000 Syrian refugees during the last year and are expected to take in 10,000 more this year, which is significantly more in total than the United States has been able to bring in. We know the vetting process is incredibly important, but we do want to thank Canada for taking part in what is a travesty internationally.

They are working on combating Ebola with initiatives such as Power Africa and are also working with us on the climate change numbers.

By the way, our two countries are working together with Mexico. We have formed a very powerful trading block, and we want to encourage that with our standards and other things that we do in terms of building electrical capabilities to allow us, as a North American block, with a new day in North America, which was agreed to among the three Presidents of countries in the last 2 years, to compete in the block in an increasingly competitive global economy, including harmonizing emission standards and doing other work together.

As one of the cochairs of the Canada-United States Interparliamentary Group, we welcome the new Prime Minister to Washington. When I was sworn in as a U.S. Senator in 2013, my friends and colleagues celebrated at the Canadian Embassy. I am the first person I have found to have my swearing-in at the Canadian Embassy, but I chose it to make a point--that we should not forget one of our best trading partners. For years it was the only Embassy draped in banners that read ``friends, neighbors, partners, allies.'' So many other countries do not acknowledge their friendship with the United States in a way that I think they should. Canada doesn't hide it. Canada is proud of it. And we welcome the Prime Minister today.

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