Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, with unemployment stuck at 9.1 percent, and consumer confidence plummeting, we must take action now to help put Americans back to work.

Our Nation's job creators have been telling us for some time that the lack of jobs is largely due to a climate of uncertainty, most notably the uncertainty and cost created by new Federal regulations.

America needs a ``time-out'' from regulations that discourage job creation and hurt our economy. If a proposed rule would have an adverse impact on jobs, the economy, or America's international competitiveness, it should not go into effect.

Today, I am filing an amendment to provide a 1-year moratorium on final rules that could have an adverse effect on the economy. The amendment is based on S. 1538, The Regulatory Time-Out Act, which I introduced last month with 16 of my colleagues. The timeout would cover major rules costing more than $100 million per year, and other rules that have been considered ``significant'' under Executive orders going back to President Clinton and followed by President George W. Bush and President Obama.

The point of my amendment is to provide job creators with a sensible breather from burdensome new regulations. This would give businesses time to get back on their feet, create the jobs that Americans so desperately need, and enhance the global competitiveness of American workers.

This moratorium would also provide us with the time we need to review and improve the regulatory process. Earlier this year, I proposed the CURB Act, which stands for clearing unnecessary regulatory burdens, which would reform the regulatory process in several important ways. Many of our colleagues have also introduced regulatory reform proposals, and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has already held three hearings on the topic this year. I expect this issue will be a priority for our committee this fall.

In sports, a ``time-out'' gives athletes a chance to catch their breaths. American workers and businesses are the athletes in a global competition that we must win. Our workers need policies that will get them off the sidelines and back on the job. Our economy needs a time-out from excessive and costly regulations. My amendment will provide this needed time-out. I am pleased that Senators Blunt, Coats, Coburn, Enzi, Hutchison, and Thune have joined me in offering this amendment, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. President, I rise today to speak in favor of the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act, which I was pleased to join with Senators Brown of Ohio, SCHUMER, GRAHAM, SNOWE, and others in introducing. This legislation will ensure that the U.S. government finally gets tough with countries, like China, that manipulate their currency to gain an unfair trade advantage.

Maine's manufacturers and their employees can compete with the best in the world, but not when the competition is gaming the system to get a leg up. Time and time again, I hear from Maine manufacturers whose efforts to compete successfully in the global economy simply cannot overcome the practices of illegal pricing and subsidies of countries such as China. The results of these unfair practices are lost jobs, shuttered factories, and decimated economies.

A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute estimates that between 2001 and 2008, the U.S. trade deficit with China eliminated or displaced 2.8 million American jobs, including 9,500 jobs in the State of Maine. China's policy of intervening in currency markets to limit the appreciation of its currency against the dollar has played a major role in driving this deficit by making Chinese exports cheaper and imports more expensive.

The bill that we are now considering is an important step toward holding accountable countries, such as China, that manipulate their currency for the purpose of gaining an unfair trade advantage. I thank the leader for bringing this bill to the floor, and I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source