Providing for Consideration of the Senate Amendment to H.R. 1314, Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act, and Providing for Consideration of the Senate Amendments to H.R. 644, Fighting Hunger Incentive Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, the rule before us today is filled with plenty of procedural gimmicks but with no opportunities to actually improve the underlying bills.

These bills fail to have enforceable environmental negotiating objectives; they fail to address currency manipulation adequately; and they fail to recognize climate change and its connection to trade. I had proposed amendments to address these issues, which were, unfortunately, not made in order.

Since NAFTA and other subsequent deals, millions of United States manufacturing jobs--one in four, in fact--have been lost, and when manufacturing workers lose their jobs due to trade, the story doesn't get much better: three in five of them take cuts if they find a new job. This is a bad deal for those who lose their jobs due to trade, of course, but it is also bad for all Americans, and it is one reason wages have stagnated for the last two decades. We cannot afford to fast-track another NAFTA on steroids.

On top of that, according to the Department of Labor, four TPP negotiating partners are using forced labor or child labor in violation of international standards. Are these the types of countries to which we want to give fast-tracked trade privileges? Plenty of multinational corporations will benefit from TPP, from increased drug prices to access to cheaper labor, when American jobs are offshored. That much is clear. Yet it is not clear how the average American worker--the people of New York's Capital Region that I represent and the people who sent all of us to be their voices in Washington--would benefit.

Let's end this foolishness and take up bills that actually help our working families by passing a minimum wage, by requiring paid family leave, by investing in STEM education and research, and by rebuilding our infrastructure.

I urge my colleagues to defeat this rule, to defeat this inadequate trade adjustment assistance and to defeat fast track. My message: Hands off the American worker. Hands off the American worker's children. Hands off the American Dream.

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