United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on another matter, earlier this week, I got to attend the Kentucky Electric Cooperative's annual meeting. The group represents 26 co-ops across Kentucky, particularly in rural communities.

We talked about the positive trends for what you might call Middle America over the past several years--the nascent economic turnaround in small towns, small cities, farm country, rural America, and other places the Obama economy largely left behind.

We also talked about the work still ahead. One of the major priorities that Kentuckians mentioned is the USMCA. I have heard it from our farmers, manufacturers, logistics providers, and bourbon distillers. Almost every sector of our economy would benefit from this trade deal.

Together, Canada and Mexico make up a $500 billion export market for the United States. This major update to our trading framework with our neighbors would send that number even higher, generate more wealth here at home, and create an estimated 176,000 new American jobs.

It is no wonder that so many Kentuckians and so many people around the country want Washington to get it done. I hear from everybody, from family farming operations to midsize manufacturers, to Fortune 500 firms, such as UPS and Toyota, that employ thousands and thousands in my State. All of them want this fairer, better playing field in trade with Canada and Mexico.

In a little more than a week from now, it will have been a full year since President Trump signed the draft agreement along with the leaders of Canada and Mexico--1 full year--but for months now, this generational agreement has been sitting on ice over in the House of Representatives. Speaker Pelosi has refused to allow a vote.

In public, House Democrats insist and insist that they care about more things than simply impeaching the President. They insist that they want to work together and legislate, but actions speak louder than words, and apparently, thus far, House Democrats have preferred to block 176,000 new jobs for American workers rather than put impeachment aside and get along with the White House for 5 minutes. It appears there is no governing priority--no matter how bipartisan, no matter how beneficial to American families--that will not take a backseat to impeachment.

Month after month, every time she has been asked about this subject, the Speaker of the House has offered the same empty rhetoric. She is always close to allowing the vote. Her conference is always ``almost there, almost there,'' but we have been almost there for months and months with no outcome in sight. Lots of talk but zero results.

Back in February, the Speaker was asked about the USMCA. She said, ``I'm optimistic.'' That was last February.

We heard the same thing in May and in June. ``We want to pass this bill.'' We heard the same thing through the summer and in September and in October. ``Every day we're becoming closer,'' she said. A few weeks ago the Speaker said: ``I think we are close . . . the last mile,'' and she called this ``the easiest trade deal that we've ever done.'' A few days ago, the Speaker insisted, yet again, a vote was ``imminent.'' That was a few days ago.

This has been the House Democrats' wild goose chase. This is what our American families, American job creators, and our partners in Mexico and Canada have had to put up with. Every time the Trump administration meets the Speaker halfway, she tries to move the goal post another 10 yards. She literally has not even updated her own talking points since Valentine's Day--textbook obstruction.

Just in case anybody did not yet understand that the real roadblock here is partisan politics, I understand the Speaker hosted Richard Trumka yesterday, head of the AFL-CIO, a power player in leftwing Big Labor. He came to the Capitol to quell the uprising of the Democrats' own Members who can't believe this thing still hasn't passed. How ironic. We are talking about a trade deal that would create more American jobs, and Democrats are considering outsourcing their judgment to Big Labor special interests, who, to my recollection, have not supported a single major trade deal in living memory.

Let's get this straight. It sounds like the head of the AFL-CIO--an organization that has never supported any trade agreement--is now the guy who gives the go-ahead on USMCA? We are talking about a trade deal, and Democrats are considering outsourcing their own jobs to the head of AFL-CIO--really? I wish I were making this up.

Reporters got ahold of the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee yesterday, and he literally said the deal would move forward ``if we can get Richard Trumka to agree.'' So the head of the AFL-CIO-- an organization that has never supported a trade agreement--is now the guy who has to green-light the USMCA, which would create 176,000 American jobs. No wonder they have a problem in the House. The chairman of the Ways and Means Committee literally said that this major trade agreement will move forward only if this major Democratic campaign contributor gives them permission.

Well, it appears that even some House Democrats are getting fed up with the absurdity. Here is what one of them said yesterday:

[Trumka] still says we're at the five yard line. . . . So it feels like we've been at the five yard line for a while.

No kidding. This is the biggest opportunity the House Democrats have had in the entirety of their first year in power to do something significant and substantive for American families--to actually pass something new and real that can become law and strengthen our Nation. In other words, the USMCA is House Democrats' final exam for their whole first year in power. And unless something turns around very quickly, after nearly a year of happy talk and empty promises, their leadership seems determined to flunk that exam. All impeachment, all the time--and even the most obvious win for American workers and small businesses gets blocked. That will be Democrats' progress report if USMCA goes nowhere. Obviously, I hope that is not how this story ends.

Mexico has passed it. Canada is waiting on us. I believe a bipartisan majority of the Senate is ready to pass it. Our workers, our job creators, and our neighbors are just waiting on Speaker Pelosi. This is no time to kill a national victory out of political spite. This is no time to outsource your judgment to special interests. The Speaker should allow a vote, and the House should send us the USMCA.

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