Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SMITH of Nebraska. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Trade Act of 2015.

We have the opportunity to remove major trade barriers which make it harder to sell U.S. products to consumers in other countries.

To grow our economy, we must expand our access to the 96 percent of consumers outside the United States. Nebraska's producers--farmers, ranchers, and others--want to serve new markets, and this bill is an important step forward.

A number of concerns have been raised, and I want to clarify a couple of points. Many Nebraskans are concerned about the President's actions on a number of issues. To address these concerns, we need to actually pass this bill and establish more than 150 congressional parameters that the President will be required to follow as trade negotiations take place.

Some might be concerned that no one is allowed to read proposed trade agreements. We must pass this bill, actually, to ensure that every Member of this body has full access to negotiating text and any final agreement is publicly posted online for 60 days before the President can sign it.

This bill also ensures we have an up-or-down vote on any trade agreement and contains new provisions allowing us to block agreements if the executive branch does not follow our rules.

This bill is important; it is an important step for opportunity and growth, and I ask for a ``yea'' vote.

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