Trade

Floor Speech

Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I wish to harken back about 6 months, if I
could, to the election of last November. For me there were at least
three takeaways from that election. No. 1, the voters of this country
want us to work together and across party lines. No. 2, they want us to
get things done. Among the things they want us to get done is to find a
way to strengthen the economic recovery that has been underway now for
several years.

Senator Boxer has referred to a couple of things that would be on
that to-do list--a robust 6-year transportation bill that rebuilds our
roads, highways, bridges, transit systems and will put a lot of people
to work and helps to strengthen our economic recovery by making a more
efficient and effective transportation network to move products and
goods all over this country and outside of this country.

We need to strengthen our cyber security. We need to address data
breach and all of the attacks that are going on throughout this country
to businesses, colleges, and universities--you name it.

We need tax reform that actually provides some predictability in the
tax system and makes our Tax Code on the business side more competitive
with the rest of the world.

We also need to acknowledge, as the President has done, that 95
percent of the world's market lies outside of our borders--95 percent.
The fastest growing part of that market around the world is Asia. The
President has suggested and strongly supported a trade agreement that
would involve 12 nations, including about a half dozen here in this
hemisphere and the other half over in Asia. All together it encompasses
about 40 percent of the world trade market.

The President is not suggesting that we just open up our markets so
that other countries can sell more of their stuff here. They already do
that for the most part. The goal of this trade agreement is to open up
these other markets in other countries so we can sell our goods, our
products, and our services there. This is a top priority for this
administration and this should be a top priority for Democrats and
Republicans. This is a priority that should be hammered out and worked
on in a way that will be fair to workers and middle-class families.

The majority leader has come here today to suggest a path forward. I
hope we will not reject it. What he suggested is we allow, through a
vote on the cloture, to move to the floor and begin debate on four
different pieces of legislation that are part of the transportation
agreement. We have seen this movie before. In fact, we have seen it any
number of times before because I believe we have given trade promotion
authority to every President since World War II except Richard Nixon.
The reason why is because it is almost impossible for 535 of us in the
Congress to negotiate a trade deal. Whether it is 3 nations or 11 other
nations, it is pretty much impossible, and that is why we have trade
promotion authority.

The majority leader suggested that we move to these four goals and
let's begin the debate. We should realize, as Democrats, that we already
realized a great victory here. In the past, the Republicans have
rejected our efforts almost every time to include trade assistance
adjustment, so that when folks are displaced from their jobs, they can
actually get help on their health care, job training, and have an
opportunity to put their lives back together.

This legislation today, the trade promotion authority, actually
expresses what our views and our priorities are as a Congress through
the trade negotiator and to our negotiating partners overseas, and I
think that is in our interest. The other thing that we get out of
moving TPA with TAA together is that we get the assurance upfront that
we are going to look after workers who are displaced. It is the best
trade adjustment assistance we have ever had, at least in terms of the
way it treats workers and displaced workers. It even helps those who
are maybe not even affected by this agreement but are affected by other
calamities in our economy--not just in the manufacturing sector but
also in the service sector as well.

I suggest this to my colleagues: Let's spend the time between now and
2:30 p.m. trying to figure out how we can establish some confidence,
faith, and trust here, so that if we move to this bill, it will not be
just to consider trade promotion authority and trade adjustment
assistance, we will have an opportunity to consider the other two
pieces of legislation as well.

There is a lot riding on this. The economic recovery of our country
does not rise and fall simply on the passage of this legislation and
the conclusion of these negotiations, but it sure would help. It would
sure help bolster a stronger economic recovery, just as would the
passage of a 6-year transportation bill, just as would cyber security
legislation, data breach legislation, and on and on.

I will close with this thought about the debate we have had in recent
months with respect to the negotiations between the five permanent
members of the Security Council, the Germans, and the Iranians in our
efforts to make sure the Iranians don't develop a nuclear weapon. We
have said again and again--we reworked the old Reagan slogan ``trust
but verify,'' except with the Iranians, we have not said ``trust but
verify, we have said ``mistrust but verify.''

I would suggest to my colleagues, especially on this side of the
aisle, let's take that approach here. Maybe we don't trust the
Republicans that they are going to do what they say they are going to
do, but we have an opportunity to verify. The verifying comes with a
vote later on. We go to the bill; we actually move to the bill, debate
the amendments, and so forth.

If at the end of the day we are not happy with what has happened, if
we feel as though we have been given a raw deal, that workers in this
country have been given a raw deal, middle-class families have been
given a raw deal, we have a chance to verify and we vote not to move
the bill off the floor. We would not provide cloture to end debate.
That is where we have our final vote. I hope we keep that in mind.

With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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