Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title United States Code, of the Rule Submitted By the Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury, Relating to ``Contributions in Exchange for State or Local Tax Credits''

Floor Speech

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Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, we have been talking about the USMCA and the Senator from Ohio crammed into just a few moments quite a bit of facts. We are late in time, so I am going to try to abbreviate my remarks.

The Senator from Ohio taught me something a few years ago that is an undisputed fact: We sell twice as many goods to countries where we have trade agreements than we do with countries where we don't. This is an opportunity to expand on an already great success story in terms of our trade with Canada.

What do we see now in trade with Canada and Mexico? We see 12 million American jobs, more than $500 billion worth of exports, and the USMCA would enhance and improve that. It is good for large manufacturing. It is good for small manufacturing. It is good for small business. The tech industry benefits from the USMCA. As the Senator of Tennessee pointed out, the creative industry--those people in Nashville and in Hollywood--will benefit also, in terms of our ability to protect our intellectual property. Farmers, ranchers, and agribusiness will all benefit.

We strengthen our position with regard to China. This is not an agreement with China, but we will be in a stronger position to compete with China because of this.

I urge the Speaker of the House of Representatives to bring this to a vote in the other body. There is one person on the face of the Earth who can bring this bill, and that is the Speaker of the House of Representatives. She needs to do it, and if she does, we will see a rare opportunity for bipartisanship in the U.S. Congress. The House, controlled by Democrats, will pass the USMCA because they know it is good for jobs and they know it is good for families and working people. The Senate will pass it on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis, and that ought to be refreshing.

I want to do something that I seldom do. I am going to quote the Washington Post. I don't get a chance to do that very often. The Washington Post has strongly endorsed USMCA. The editorial board wrote recently: ``USMCA would be a real improvement over the status quo,'' and it went on to urge Democrats, including many who have already said they support the agreement, to bring the USMCA up without delay.

This is an opportunity for us to move this economy forward. This is an opportunity for us to join with Canada and Mexico, which have already indicated their support for this treaty, and an opportunity for bipartisanship, which needs to break out more in this building.

So I join my colleagues. I am glad to rise with them in support of urging the Speaker to bring this bill to the floor, and I urge quick adoption in the House and Senate.

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Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, I will speak for only a few moments, and then the distinguished junior Senator from Alaska will close this part of the debate.

The senior Senator from Alaska mentioned that only 38 of us have actually served with Senator Ted Stevens. Of that group, I am the junior-most in rank, and I know that because I was the junior-most Member of this body more than a decade ago when I rose on this floor to pay tribute to this great Senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens, on his last day in office.

I did not speak from my desk, as you can imagine. I didn't have a very prominent desk at the time. I chose instead to stand as close as I could directly behind Senator Stevens. I suppose I wanted to have his back, at least figuratively, for one last time. And I wanted to make sure I could see his wife Catherine in the gallery, as I may have done just a few moments ago, because she meant so much and still means so much to all of us and to my wife Gayle and me.

What we learned from Ted Stevens guides our work today. I was honored to serve alongside him for just a few years. I was anguished when he had to leave us in 2008, and together with all of us, I mourned his death in 2010.

Seniority is earned when the people of our States see fit to return us time and again to Washington to do their business. Respect is earned when we engage in the long fight to fulfill our oaths and to support and defend the Constitution.

Ted Stevens earned both seniority and respect for 40 years. When he was elected as the third Senator ever from the Land of the Midnight Sun, he had already served his country brilliantly, as has been mentioned, as a brave pilot in World War II for the Flying Tigers and as a key leader in putting that 49th star on the American flag.

The portrait being unveiled in the Old Senate Chamber today, where so many great debates took place, is a fitting homage to Ted Stevens. As the senior Senator has mentioned, the seemingly gruff exterior depicted was a facade over one of the most genuine and patriotic people ever to walk these halls.

He went to work every day to defend Americans and to make good on the promise of the country he so deeply loved. He belongs in the place of honor where his portrait will be displayed. Members who served with Ted Stevens will look on that portrait and remember that.

I hope our more recent colleagues who have joined since Ted Stevens left will come to know what a giant he was. As chairman of the Commerce Committee, a committee Ted Stevens once led, I went to Alaska with the junior Senator from Alaska this summer to learn, among other things, from coastguardsmen keeping our Nation safe in the Far North. But I saw a lot of that State, and there is a lot to see.

Despite its geographic size, Alaska is in many respects a small town. Like my home State of Mississippi, everyone knows just about everyone else, and virtually every Alaskan knew Ted Stevens. They knew what he did for them. They knew what he did for this country.

I could see his legacy this summer. The evidence of his leadership is everywhere in so many ways. He helped turn America's last frontier into a thriving community for Alaskans and Americans and a place of wonder and adventure for any of us who will visit there.

While he was at it, he performed small acts of kindness that I will never forget and heroic acts of statesmanship almost every day in his chosen homes--this closed Chamber and that wide open State.

I can't wait to see the portrait. I can't wait to tell him hello and, once again, to look him right in the eye.

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