United States-Columbia Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act

Floor Speech

Mr. MEEKS. I thank the chairman for his work and I thank the ranking member.

Let me start off by thanking Mr. Levin also, because indeed I know he's been back and forth to Colombia, and he's made this a better trade bill with the action plan. And it was your hard work and dedication, Mr. Levin, and I thank you for doing that.

Yesterday, I had a chance to talk briefly on the floor in regard to the economics of it, and I'm hearing a lot of people talk about the past of Colombia, but not some of the things that are taking place on the ground right now. I have heard a lot of individuals talk about how it may be devastating in reference specifically to the African Colombian community.

But let me bring some facts to the issue, because I think oftentimes when I looked and talked to President Santos and the civil rights struggle right here in America, I see some similarities that we've got to think about because there's some positive things, a lot of positive things that happen on the floor.

For example, for the first time we have the Victims and Land Restitution Law in Colombia that was passed by the Government of Colombia. We have at the Presidential program on Afro-Colombians. We have the development projects. We have the mining and prior consultation law. We have addressing discrimination law that has been passed. We have the Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Program that has been passed by the Colombian legislature. We have the Afro-Colombian leadership and scholarship program. We have the Martin Luther King scholarship program. We have the Equal Employment Opportunity initiative. All of this is done by the Santos government. We have the Pathways to Prosperity Women Entrepreneurs Mentoring Network. We have 400 scholarships for Afro-Colombian police. We have the emergency humanitarian assistance programs. These are just some of the programs that are happening on the ground right now that are benefiting African Colombians.

When you talk about the leadership there, because I'm getting letters back and forth, this is a diverse leadership in Colombia. This is a diverse leadership here in America.

And just as the goal is to make sure that we enact certain things into laws so that we can make changes to make it better for people for tomorrow, that is what President Santos has been doing. That's what has happened, and that's what is happening.

Some say Santos is not going to carry it out. When Lyndon Baines Johnson became President, some said he wouldn't do anything.

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