The Trans-Pacific-Partnership

Floor Speech

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Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Pocan. It is great to
join him in this hour of discussion about the Fast Track method that
has been associated with trade negotiations and with fair trade/free
trade concepts alike.

I represent a district in upstate New York, the 20th Congressional
District, which is primarily the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk
River Valleys, and it was there that we became the donor area to the
Erie Canal that gave birth to westward movement for this Nation and
sparked an industrial revolution. It was there that we saw the
development of a necklace of communities, dubbed mill towns, that then
rose as the epicenters of invention and innovation that saw
manufacturing booming as we went forward as a nation.

Many an immigrant called that their new home, that region their new
home, and they tethered their American Dream to the prosperity that was
continuing to grow in the region. I think back to the manufacturing
sector and all that it meant to my ancestors, all it meant to me and
the opportunities that came into my life, and it was that empowerment
that came through the availability of work, the dignity of work, the
opportunity to earn a paycheck that really made a difference.

I think of those same towns today having really lost millions of jobs
across America. We are reflective of all those towns that became those
manufacturing centers, that enabled people again to engage in
meaningful employment and to be able to have those dreams, those
American Dreams fully, fully strengthened by the opportunity for work.

When I see the reduction of standards, of environmental standards,
where we are willing to have our children exploited by the ugly sins of
the past with concerns for child labor laws that might erode, when we
think about some of the inequities that are brought to bear with the
denial of collective bargaining, all of these items have snuck into
trade negotiations. There is an importance for Congress to be able to
provide the oversight and the assessment of these various negotiations,
where we can look at these trade deals and suggest amendments or have
sound debate.

We not only have a right as Members of Congress, I think the public
that we represent has a need for Congress to review these documents and
to suggest improvements. So I look forward to this hour of discussion
where you and I and our several colleagues will join together in
speaking to the wisdom, or lack thereof, of some of the processes that
have followed this entire trade discussion.

We are talking about a trade deficit now that has ballooned beyond
belief, to record proportions, and where we are putting our economy and
that American Dream at risk and where we are denying meaningful
employment to those whom we represent here in Washington.

I thank you for leading us in this hour of discussion, and I know
that the information that we will exchange will be very critical and
important to people who will be airing into this discussion and
allowing them to trade those, exchange those ideas with their given
elected representatives.

With that, I thank you for leading us in this important discussion.

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