Executive Session
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, first, I recently heard that my dear friend Harry Reid has just gotten out of an operation to treat pancreatic cancer. I have spoken to his family, and it seems that everything went very well with the operation. The doctors say pancreatic cancer is not a great thing, but given that the operation couldn't have gone much better, we are all praying for Harry's speedy recovery. Harry is a fighter literally and figuratively. I know he is going to approach his recovery with the same energy and tenacity and resolve that defined his public life. We all send our prayers to him. We also wish a speedy recovery to the First Lady, who underwent a medical procedure today as well. Trade with China
Madam President, an area in which the President and I have mostly agreed is on trade with China. I have given him a pat on the back for his stance so far. I have praised the administration vocally and forcefully for its efforts in addressing China's intellectual property theft and extortion--its unwillingness to let our best products be sold in their country, in their huge market, unless we give them our family jewels, that of how we do things, of how we invent things.
The President was right, and so many of us breathed a sigh of relief when he started an investigation into China's theft of our intellectual property. The administration was right to threaten tariffs and investment restrictions to get China to the negotiating table. Its reaction to what happened with the recent telecom company ZTE shows that when you are tough with China, it really reacts.
China is rapacious about trade, particularly about intellectual property. To gain access to China's markets, American companies are forced by China's Government into deals in which they must turn over their most valuable job-creating intellectual property to Chinese competitors. China's state-backed companies try to steal intellectual property from American companies outright. It is wrong and is anathema to the American way.
Four-star Gen. Keith Alexander, Retired, has said that China's theft of intellectual property has been the ``greatest transfer of wealth in history.'' That just eats at me. It eats at me. That is American jobs; that is American wealth, American innovation, of which we are all so proud, being stolen--there is no other word--by China, and it hurts us.
There is one example that hits home to me. I was in Albany this morning. One of our biggest employers is GE, which makes steam turbines. GE employs thousands of people in good-paying jobs. It is one of the big manufacturing sites left in Schenectady. A few years back, it signed one of these 5149s. China wouldn't let it sell the turbines in China, and it is a huge market. So it signed one of these things to make them in China--a 5149 with a Chinese company that clearly the government's tentacles are in.
It is great for GE's CEO. I liked him, and he was my friend, but I so objected to what he did here. GE makes good profits on those sales because it gets an exclusive contract on the right to sell for a few years, but then China will have stolen the amazing GE technology that allows its turbines to be the best in the world, to spin fast without overheating, and those jobs are gone. That story can be repeated over and over and over again.
So I thought, good for President Trump for finally getting serious about this calamity. I noted that my views on China and how we deal with it economically are closer to President Trump's than to President Bush's or President Obama's, both of whom I thought were far too soft. He acknowledged that in a little note he sent to me because he saw it in one of the newspapers he reads. Yet, now, disappointingly--maybe not surprisingly--President Trump is backing off. Over the weekend, we saw two incredible examples of the President doing a 180 on China.
First, Axios reported that the President is on the verge of a deal that would have China accelerate its purchases of U.S. goods, in the name of reducing our trade deficit with China, in exchange for our dropping the 301 tariffs that have been proposed to stop China from stealing our intellectual property specifically.
Secondly and amazingly enough, when he finally took some strong action against China--his Commerce Department--the President backed off. He tweeted that he and President Xi are working together to give the massive Chinese phone company ZTE a way to get back into business fast because there had been ``too many jobs in China lost.'' What about jobs in America, Mr. President? What about the millions of jobs that are lost because of what China has done?
The President was referring to the fact that ZTE had accepted a fine for selling its products in violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran and North Korea and could be further restricted by a pending FCC proposal to ban U.S. telecom companies that receive Federal funds from purchasing mobile equipment or services from companies like ZTE. Why? Because ZTE poses a national security threat to U.S. communication networks. This President, who prides himself on keeping us secure, is going to let ZTE continue to do this despite what the experts say?
Why on Earth would President Trump promise to help a Chinese telecom company that has flouted U.S. sanctions and whose trade practices are a risk to our national security? The thing that will move China most is taking tough action against actors like ZTE, but even before it is implemented the President backs off. Why on Earth would the President retreat from cracking down on intellectual property theft--the thing China fears most, the thing that has hurt us the most and will hurt us even more in the future--losing millions, if not tens of millions, of American jobs in exchange for a few purchases of U.S. goods in the short term? That is a bad, lopsided deal if there ever was one. It would be like trading away your star player for the last-round draft pick. If President Trump makes that deal, President Xi of China will have made a fool of the President and will have shown that he does not know how to cut a deal.
President Trump bemoans ``too many jobs in China lost.'' What about American jobs? What about job losses associated with the theft of intellectual property from China and ZTE, in particular? What happened to ``America First''? Being soft on trade puts China first. What happened to ``Make America Great Again''? That is how the President campaigned. That is, in good part, how he got elected, but, once again, the President talks the talk but refuses--is unable, is afraid--to walk the walk, and, once again, a foreign leader could well be playing our President for a chump.
President Trump's latest about-face on trade policy will not make America great again; it will make China great again. The next generation of electric vehicles, telecom hardware, advanced aviation technology, and renewable energy should be made in America, not China. It will not happen if we allow China to continue to extort and steal our intellectual property and know-how, if we allow China to sell goods here at will but not allow us to sell our best products over there. Walking away from the negotiating table with anything less than an enforceable and verifiable commitment to protect our intellectual property would be a catastrophic failure and again show that President Xi has clearly outplayed President Trump. I pray that doesn't happen because we care about jobs for America. Oil Prices
Mr. President, finally, on oil prices, few things matter more to the average consumer than the price of a gallon of gasoline. When gas prices go through the roof, it eats away at a family's income, leaving less to cover the cost of everything else--groceries, medicines, tuition, summer vacation.
Recent data suggests that gas prices are about to spike this summer, the result of the actions and inactions of the Trump administration. As gas prices head toward $3 a gallon, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that the average family could expect to pay $200 more this summer's driving season than last year.
Part of the reason is, President Trump triggered greater uncertainty and increased instability in the Middle East when he pulled out of the Iran deal and is about to levy additional sanctions on the oil- producing nation. Another part of the reason is, OPEC has decided to cut oil production. President Trump has tweeted that OPEC's decision ``will not be accepted.'' We are waiting to see some action that will help America's motorists.
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