Providing for Consideration of the Senate Amendment to H.R. 2146, Defending Public Safety Employees' Retirement Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentlewoman for the time.
Members, what I really dislike about this whole debate is that there is so much invective thrown around, claims of untruth.
Now, here is the truth. The reality is that, if we pass trade promotion authority, we will have nothing more than an up-or-down vote at the end of the process. They don't have to take our amendments. They don't have to listen to what we say. Very likely, what will happen is that whatever has been negotiated already will be what the deal is.
For some Members to try to claim that others don't get it or they are not being honest is, quite frankly, insulting and does not add one thing to the quality of the debate.
The American people deserve to know that if trade promotion authority passes, there is a ``yes'' or ``no'' vote that will happen at the end of the process, and nobody here will be able to impact it through the normal course of events. We can go to some meetings; we can write some letters; but can we actually legislate? No.
Now, the reason that this is a very bad outcome is because the United States Constitution delegates Congress, this body, with the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations. It says: ``Congress shall have power ..... to regulate commerce with foreign nations.''
What we are doing here is taking that constitutional authority and we are handing it to the Executive and hoping for the best.
Now, the people who have been negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership all along are a body of about 600 multinational lawyers and businesspeople. The voice of the workers haven't been there. The voice of the environment has not been there. The voice of ordinary citizens who have every reason to want a better world and impact this process have been muted in favor of big multinational corporate types. We must vote ``no'' on TPA today.
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