Providing for Consideration of the Senate Amendment to the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 1295, Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise this morning in support of a rule which would allow for an up-or-down vote in the House on the Senate amendment to H.R. 1295, the Trade Preferences Extension Act, so that it can be considered by the full House; and, if the bill passes, it will head to the President's desk along with the trade promotion authority for the President's signature.
This bill that would be considered after passage of this rule renews the Generalized System of Preferences program, extending the African Growth and Opportunity Act, and reauthorizes Trade Adjustment Assistance, known as TAA.
The activity on the floor of the House today represents a promise to Congress made by Speaker Boehner and Senate Majority Leader McConnell. After House Democrats voted down TAA last week, the House considered and passed TPA, with a bipartisan majority, and sent it to the Senate. In the meantime, the Speaker and the Senate majority leader promised that they would ensure that both TPA and TAA receive votes in the House and the Senate.
As promised, here we are today. The Senate yesterday delivered it, when it passed TPA 60-38, which is now headed to the President's desk for his signature. The Senate also passed the Senate amendment to H.R. 1295, which will be considered today under the rule which we are speaking about. The final legislative step is for the House to consider the Trade Preferences Extension Act, and that is exactly what the rule will do.
This rule and the underlying bill represents the end of a long process to deliver trade promotion authority on behalf of the American people. Mr. Speaker, it is a Republican agenda about jobs. By passing TPA, the House and the Senate proved to the world that America is willing to lead and to stand for jobs and interaction between great countries to help lead in the 21st century. We believe in the rule of law, we believe in intellectual property, and we believe in an opportunity for consumers to have the best products, wherever they are around the world, at a great price.
The world has responded, and our partner nations have indicated that they are now ready to begin the negotiation to bring their best deals to the table. As these negotiations heat up, it is vital that the administration follow the requirements of TPA, some 160 separate, specific items which this House and the legislation very clearly talks about. It will lead negotiation to a deal that is good for the American people. If the administration violates that promise, the House can turn off TPA and stop the process.
Once a trade agreement is completed, the President is required to make public the text of an agreement for 60 days before the President seeks approval to it. The President must then submit the final text of any trade agreement to Congress 30 days before it gets a vote. Because of this important transparency feature of TPA, the American people have seen a better process than
what existed today. We will have months to read the text of any deal before Congress votes on it.
Most importantly, though, Congress retains its right to vote up or down on any agreement. So if the President brings us a bad trade deal, we can and we would vote that down. This ensures that Congress, and only the U.S. Congress, can change and agree to any law or agreement that is made that becomes U.S. law.
We have also proved that Washington has learned from some States, like my home State of Texas, which benefit greatly from trade. Trade supports over 3 million jobs in Texas, and last year Texas exported $289 billion worth of goods and services to trading partners around the globe. Because of the process Congress has gone through the past few weeks, we can ensure that the growth, the availability of better jobs, and high-paying opportunities lie ahead for the American people.
At a time when it has become very difficult to create jobs in this country, we will, through trade promotion authority and these trade deals, offer new and great opportunities for more jobs and to build more American products and to sell more products around the globe.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. SESSIONS. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman brings up a lot of good issues. We have been on the floor talking about this bill for a long, long time: hours of debate up in the Committee on Rules; hours of debate not only in the Committee on Ways and Means, but also watching the United States Senate for weeks work through this issue.
I think the gentlewoman knows and understands that any final trade deal will result in our ability to see in writing--and the public--this document; and the gentlewoman knows and understands it is simply not true if we try and say that we can't see what is in the bill, we don't know what is in the bill. Plenty of time, plenty of time to do that. It is just not available yet.
So why would you put out something that has not yet been negotiated? I wouldn't do that. And whether the administration has handled this entire process well or not may be up for speculation, but I find it hard to criticize. Any Member of Congress was given an opportunity to come and read what exists today. This is not the final deal. Members of Congress have not seen the final deal because it has not been negotiated. When it is negotiated, when whoever the President is brings a trade deal back to the United States, to the United States Congress, we will be able to see it.
Secondly, very specifically, Chairman Paul Ryan of the Committee on Ways and Means put in the law that any Member of Congress may take part in any of the trade talks as they evolve around the country. Members of Congress are allowed to do this, and I think that it is a real advantage to have more authority for Members of Congress of rules and regulations, putting us into the process to where we are a part of understanding not only what we would be voting on, but the importance of us being involved throughout the process.
Lastly, the gentlewoman is right. I do understand that the rules and regulations that have been added, not every Member of this House would like them, but I felt like they were important. I would like to just go through some of those very quickly.
One of them is that we are not going to allow any part of a trade deal to end up as an immigration deal. That is the wrong thing. This should be about trade, not about immigration.
Secondly, it shouldn't be about climate change, and we specifically said it cannot be about climate change.
Lastly, we said that for our own authority--and I think the constitutional bounds are there for us to say that--if there are any changes in this document, those changes have to come through Congress for us to approve them.
Of course, not every colleague that we have in the House would be for those rules, but I believe that they are in the best interest of this body.
I believe they are in the best interest of making sure that the way the world sees us is that we work together from a democracy, a republic perspective; that we work back through the things that we agree to in law, in bilateral deals, would have to involve the United States Congress. It would have to involved the United States Senate and the President and us working together.
By the authority granted within this TPA, that is exactly what we will do. I think it is well balanced. I think it is really a work of art that Chairman Ryan has crafted, along with our colleagues in the Senate, and I am proud of that.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
The gentleman, my friend from Massachusetts, is a great man and a very dear friend, but I would respond and say to the gentleman that you are going to have an opportunity, and I can't wait to get you invited to every single round of these and have you find time to go do exactly what you think Members of Congress ought to be doing because, in fact, that is the way the TPA is written.
Now, we haven't agreed to it yet because it has not been signed by--well, that has--but this whole process. As soon as that takes place, the gentleman will have all the opportunity he wants to go and take part in every round of the discussions.
I don't believe that is what we were elected for. I don't believe we were elected to go and have to do all the work that is described that the gentleman said to get back into the fight, to go offer the trade deals, to go do the negotiating.
He will be given that chance. He will be given that chance every single day. As soon as it is signed by the President, he can go at it. He can maybe even just tell the President he wants to do this for a full-time job; I don't know, but he will have that opportunity.
Every Member of this body will have that same chance. He and every Member will have a chance to go and negotiate, be in the room, be a part of the discussion, and make sure all these big, multilateral corporations that he talks about that will be in the room--which they won't be because that would not be the right thing. There would be ethics violations. I am sure the White House, the executive branch, can notify him of that, but he will be allowed as a Member of Congress.
Mr. Speaker, the things that are being talked about most as negative points about this bill, there is already an answer to it. That is what Republicans did.
This is a Republican bill. This is about the authority of the House of Representatives, the United States Congress, to make sure we are involved. That has never been allowed before.
Fast track is what we used to have. That is what we did have. We now have a bill before us today which will help us complete the entire process, to make sure Members of Congress are involved, not just the United States negotiator; but all the world will know the piece parts about how we are going to negotiate the trade deal. If it doesn't come back that way, we will vote it down.
Do we need to second-guess them now today? I don't think so, but if any Member wants to be involved in this, they can just get on their plane and go wherever they want and get it done. By law, they will be allowed that opportunity.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I really, once again, appreciate the gentleman for coming to the floor and speaking directly with you and all of his colleagues about the importance of this bill and, really, the problems he has with it.
But I would also like to let you know, Mr. Speaker, that the number one selling car in Korea is an American-made car. We signed a trade agreement in 2011 with Korea. The Toyota Camry from Georgetown, Kentucky,
the Toyota made in Georgetown, Kentucky, is the number one selling vehicle in Korea starting last year.
Now, there may not be a lot of them necessarily where the gentleman visited in Korea, but that is a fact; and the gentleman from Georgetown, Kentucky, Andy Barr, who is a Member of this Congress, has talked about this for a long, long time.
The trade agreements, when the United States engages with them, we end up with surpluses, and it is better for the American worker. The trade agreement jobs pay 30 percent more than the nontrade-associated jobs in this country; and by virtue of what we are doing we are trying to get a trade deal now where Japan would be involved because we do want Japan to open up their marketplaces. But where we have these agreements, that is what happens. The American worker wins.
So TPA is already the law of the land. The question we have today is whether we are going to include in that package the last parts of this, which would be TAA, which do give, if there is a difference as a result of the trade deals where an industry, where a town, where a group of people were ``harmed,'' then the law would be there for retraining.
I think that is the right vote. That is why Speaker Boehner is bringing this back, even though, by and large, this concept was turned down by the Democratic Party, from the very top of their organization to the bottom. That is why Speaker Boehner understood the right and fair thing to do.
Senate Majority Leader McConnell said the right thing to do is to bring it back; let's see if we can repackage it. Let's see if we can take a little bit of time, measure three times, saw again, see if we can get it right. That is what we are trying to do.
Trade Promotion Authority that the gentleman has been speaking of is already the law of the land. The question is will this last piece be a part of it.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I appreciate my colleagues, the gentleman from Massachusetts, the gentlewoman from New York, for their engagement today.
Mr. Speaker, confirmed again, the number one car, the car of the year in Korea in 2013: Toyota Camry, made in Georgetown, Kentucky. I have had 10 people text me trying to give me more information about what a great opportunity this is for American workers.
Mr. Speaker, that is what this bill is about. It is about the jobs opportunity and a fair proposal, not just by the administration, not just by the House and the Senate but, really, a Republican bill for jobs. This is a jobs bill, a jobs bill that will allow the American worker to have new boundaries, new opportunities to go out in.
And let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, I don't travel very much. But I will tell you that I know from the stories that come back, people want American-made products. They want American-made, everything from jeans all the way to high-tech products. They want American products because of the reliability of the American workers, because of the stability of America, and we have got a great opportunity with this final piece, part of this trade agreement to move it forward.
I think 5 years from now we are going to look back and say, Wow, what did we do great? And you can mark it just like they do this year, 2 years ago, looking back to the Toyota Camry, number one in the Korean market.
Mr. Speaker, today's rule provides for, I think, just an up-or-down vote--it is really simple--to Senate amendment H.R. 1295, the Trade Preferences Extension Act. By passing this rule today, we can move on. The House will have an opportunity to consider the bill, and it will head to the President's desk, this package of bills to the President.
I urge adoption of the rule and look forward to the debate that will follow on the real substance of the bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.
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