The Trans-Pacific-Partnership
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. POCAN. Mr. Speaker, I am here on behalf of the Congressional
Progressive Caucus in our Special Order hour where we want to share
with the American public our concerns about a trade deal that we think
will be coming through Congress in the first few months or first half
of this session.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is the biggest and the baddest of the
trade deals that we have seen come before this country. It represents a
dozen countries. From Chile to Japan, almost 800 million people are
represented by countries that would be included within the Trans-
Pacific Partnership, and it represents 40 percent of the world's
economy.
Yet the trade agreement has been drafted largely in secret. No one
from the public has seen it. Quite honestly, Members of Congress
haven't seen it. But about 600 people in this country are involved with
the drafting of this trade deal. It has great ramifications that go
beyond trade, the 29 chapters that make up the Trans-Pacific
Partnership.
We anticipate there also could be a move from leadership to introduce
legislation to Fast Track the trade deal. What that means to Fast Track
it is to really take away the public's ability, through their elected
Members of Congress, to have a say, to be able to debate and to amend
the trade deal.
We anticipate that could be one of the first votes that would come to
us this Congress about trade. We at the Progressive Caucus want to
share with the public the various concerns that we may have about this
very, very large, all-encompassing trade deal that could affect
American jobs, could affect food safety, could affect environmental
concerns, could affect things like buy American laws, currency policy,
and many, many more issues.
I am joined by a number of Members of Congress today who would like
to take part in this, and I would like to, at this time, yield to my
colleague from the great State of New York, who has put a number of
efforts towards this in working very strongly to make sure the public
knows what is in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
I would like to yield to Mr. Paul Tonko from New York.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. POCAN. Thank you, Representative Tonko. As you mentioned, one of
the concerns we have, not only in your region but in my district, is
the loss of jobs that we have had because of some of these past trade
deals that haven't quite gone as promised.
It has been estimated we have lost 4 million U.S. jobs due to just
three trade deals, and three-quarters of those jobs lost were in the
manufacturing sector.
I had mentioned earlier today at a press conference in Rock County,
Wisconsin, a county that I share with Representative Paul Ryan, we used
to have Parker Pen, made good American-made quality pens. A thousand
jobs at one time were in that community working at Parker Pen. In early
2010, the final jobs had moved to Mexico. That is just one example of
the number of jobs that we lost just in south central Wisconsin, much
less Flint, Michigan, and Los Angeles, California, and other parts of
the country. So we appreciate your efforts and your comments.
I would like to also yield to another colleague of mine from the
great State of California, someone who has been a strong member of our
Progressive Caucus. I would like to yield to Representative Janice Hahn
of the great State of California.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. POCAN. Thank you, Representative Hahn. I think you said it very
eloquently. We are all for trade. I don't think there is a Member in
this body who doesn't want to see trade happen, but we want fair trade.
We don't want the so-called free trade that makes it harder for
American workers, that depresses our wages and ultimately includes a
whole lot of other things that affect everything from food safety to
environmental concerns to our ability to have something as basic as buy
American laws and buy local laws. So thank you for your comments.
I would also like to yield to a gentleman, a colleague, and a friend
from the State of Michigan, someone who represents the Flint and
Saginaw area. I would like to yield to Representative Dan Kildee from
the great State of Michigan.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. POCAN. Again, thank you so much, Representative Kildee.
When you mentioned the auto industry, I have to admit that I grew up
in Kenosha, Wisconsin. American Motors was the company that ran the
town. Almost everyone had a family member or a neighbor who worked at
American Motors. Now, granted, we made Pacers and Gremlins, so there
were some mistakes along the way. American Motors eventually went away
to Renault, and it went away to Chrysler. It went away to nothing as
well as the people who had the strong family-supporting wages from that
auto industry. Now the companies that have replaced the auto industry
are, quite honestly, jelly bean manufacturers and companies like that.
It does not pay the same wage. It doesn't support the family in the
same way.
Just as we were promised with the Korean free trade agreement,
especially around autos, in that 70,000 jobs would be created, instead,
60,000 jobs were lost. That is exactly why we have to be involved now
while it matters, not after it has been negotiated. We don't have a
debate, and we don't have a chance to amend it. So thank you for all of
your work on this on behalf of the people of Michigan.
I would also like to yield to another colleague of mine, someone who
has been a stalwart in the Progressive Caucus, someone I respected long
before I ever had the chance to come to Congress. I would like to yield
to my great colleague, Representative Barbara Lee, from the great State
of California.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. POCAN. Thank you, Representative Lee.
I look forward to working with you on our Progressive alternative
also for the budget, when, I think, we will showcase many of those
initiatives that we would much rather see the country do to help create
good-paying jobs and get more people back to work. So thank you for all
of your efforts.
At this point, I would like to yield to a colleague of mine from the
great State of Ohio, who has seen much of this firsthand and who,
today, has very eloquently explained her experiences of being around
when NAFTA had passed. Let me yield to Representative Marcy Kaptur from
the great State of Ohio.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. POCAN. Thank you, Representative Kaptur, for all that you have
done. You have been an articulate spokesperson on behalf of jobs and
the effects of these bad trade deals on jobs. And I have to say, I am
really glad you brought up the textile industry, because when we talk
about the need to work together in this Congress, this is an issue
where Democrats and Republicans can absolutely unite.
About 12 years ago, I was on a delegation of the American Council of
Young Political Leaders. And one of the people on the delegation was a
very conservative judge from the State of Mississippi. She and I and
the group had met with some sweatshop workers in Indonesia to talk
about all the mills that have left, especially in the southern part of
the United States, and those jobs are pretty much gone forever.
I have been in business for 27 years, since I had hair. I have had a
small business. And in that role, we screen-print on T-shirts. And I
have watched over the years all of the mills that made T-shirts in the
United States pretty much leave. It is pretty hard to find clothes
still made in the USA. It is even harder to find them union-made in the
USA. And this is something that unites people of different political
ideologies because we see those jobs leaving. It doesn't matter. It is
not a Democratic job or a Republican job. These bad trade deals too
often just cost us jobs.
I appreciate you bringing that up, and thank you again for all that
you do.
Next I would like to yield to someone who has been an extraordinary
leader in this area. She has helped to coordinate Members of Congress
like no one else, not just on this issue but on many other issues. She
is an absolutely tireless advocate for the American public and for
making sure that Congress has the proper role when it comes to trade
agreements. She is someone whom I am extremely honored to have as a
colleague and a friend. I would like to yield to the great Representative Rosa DeLauro from the State of Connecticut.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. POCAN. Again, thank you so much, Representative DeLauro, for all
your leadership. You are helping to coordinate all of our voices in
this battle, and we really appreciate that and all your efforts. Thank
you so much.
When you brought up the public opinion of Congress, there is no
question. If you were actually to explain this process to anyone,
regardless of their political ideology, that for the last 2 years,
about 600 people in this country from America's biggest corporations
and Wall Street's biggest banks have been involved in trying to craft
this legislation that we haven't seen and the American public hasn't
seen and we are going to be asked to vote on something that would take
away our ability, sight unseen, to vote to limit our ability to debate
and to amend any kind of a trade agreement--that is exactly what is
wrong with Washington. That is why people, I think, get so disgusted
with Washington.
We need to stand up, Democrats and Republicans together, to make sure
that we have our ability to have our voices heard, which is the
public's voices through Members of Congress. So your efforts on Fast
Track, on TPP, food safety, and so many areas, thank you so much.
Again, I appreciate it.
Another one of our leaders of our caucus is here who has been an
articulate fighter on so many progressive issues.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from the State of Maryland,
Representative Donna Edwards, my great colleague.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. POCAN. Thank you again so much, Representative Edwards. When you
talked about the job loss in Maryland, we lost nearly 75,000
manufacturing job through the NAFTA-WTO period in the last 20 years.
When I was a legislator in the State of Wisconsin, it was a Buy
American law that I got passed with a bipartisan vote in the Wisconsin
Legislature. The fact that we are going to give up our sovereignty to
have that law and some multinational corporation can sue any local unit
of government so that they can contest those laws and we can lose that
ability, I think the average person, if they knew that was something
even being discussed, would be opposed to that, much less the other 28
chapters in addition to procurement that are included in this Trans-
Pacific Partnership.
Thank you so much for all the work you have done on this and for
making people aware of all the little hidden gems that if we don't have
an ability to have a full and fair debate in this House, things that
could happen in the biggest and the baddest of the trade deals yet we
have seen in this country, so thank you so much.
Mr. Speaker, the Progressive Caucus is going to be doing everything
we can in the coming months to fight this, to make sure that Congress
has a say. We aren't against trade, we want fair trade, but the so-
called free trade that is out there right now that is being drafted by
corporate CEOs and Wall Street banks doesn't include the public and
doesn't include Congress, and it needs to have every single person
represented.
We are the voices of the American people. We need to be able to have
a full debate in this body, and we need to be able to amend any deal
that we don't like, the particular deals that have been decided by
others, by corporate leaders in this country. The American public has
to be included.
Before I ever came to this Congress, the last 27 years, I have run a
small business, a small specialty printing business. One of the things
we do is we source American-made and union-made products for people.
I watched, over that 27 years, companies leave this country over and
over and over, whether it be the mills that I mentioned from the South
that made T-shirts to things as simple as pens. Companies like Parker
Pen used to have up to 1,000 jobs in Rock County, Wisconsin, that now
have all gone out of this country. Those are the types of jobs that we
have seen leave over and over.
When you go back into these communities, they have not replaced the
same quality paying jobs. That is part of why we have got a problem.
While the economy has been coming back, unfortunately, many people are
being left behind, and they are not having the same family-supporting
wages that they need out there.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is 29 chapters, but only five of those
chapters actually relate to trade. So much of what we have talked about
has been about the job impacts and your income impacts of a trade deal,
but this also covers environmental law, currency law, intellectual
property law, food safety, and the ability for procurement, as we just
talked about on Buy American laws, and on and on and on.
This Congress, I think, can work together, Democrats and Republicans,
who have a concern about giving carte blanche authority to simply the
U.S. Trade Representative and the White House and leaving the people
out, leaving the Congress out of that conversation.
We are going to continue to fight this, to talk about this and to
make sure that people understand what Fast Track is and what it isn't
and to make sure that those myths that may be out there about how to
help create jobs may not be true, and there is a lot more ramifications
that are out there.
Mr. Speaker, we thank you so much for this time this evening. We
appreciate the ability to talk about this on the floor of Congress.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source