Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as may I consume.

Mr. Speaker, the question before us today is really pretty simple: Is America going to shape the global economy or is it going to shape us? Ninety-five percent of the world's consumers, they don't live in this country. They live in other countries. So if we want to create more jobs in America, we have got to make more things here in America and sell them over there. In fact, one out of every five jobs in America already today depends on trade, and you know what, that is a good thing because these jobs pay more. They pay on average 18 percent more. But while the world is moving full steam ahead we have been standing still, Mr. Speaker.

We haven't completed a trade agreement in years. Today, there are 262 free trade agreements in place across the world. We are a party to 14. Since 2007, when the last version of trade promotion authority expired, there have been 100 trade agreements negotiated and signed. The U.S. is a party to none of those. China is negotiating seven agreements right now, including one with 16 countries.

In the global economy, if you are standing still, you are falling behind because all these other countries are negotiating agreements without us. What that basically means is other countries are lowering their trade barriers between those countries. As a result of them lowering their trade barriers, making their products more affordable, getting more market share, they are putting up barriers against our products, making it harder for us to get access to those markets.

Big companies can set up a factory in another country, make something there, and sell it there. Getting trade agreements means removing those barriers so we keep those factories here, so all businesses, big and small, can make things in America, grow things in America, and sell them overseas.

Let me just give you an example. Since the year 2000 there have been 48 trade agreements in East Asia alone. America has been a party to only two of them, and as a result of that, our share of their imports fell by 42 percent.

The rules of the global economy are being written right now, Mr. Speaker. That is not the question. The question is: Are we going to write the rules of the global economy with our allies or are we going to let other countries write the rules, such as China? This is why H.R. 1314, the Trade Act, would establish TPA, or trade promotion authority.

Now, there has been a lot of confusion about this bill, a lot of honest confusion and sometimes a lot of intentional confusion. Let me say really clearly what this bill is.

TPA is not a trade deal. TPA is not a trade agreement. TPA is a process for negotiating a trade agreement. Congress is not considering a trade agreement today. There is no secret agreement that nobody has read that is being voted on today. All we are voting on today is a process by which Congress considers trade agreements. The earliest we would do so would be in the fall, at the earliest. Why should we care about this process? Because a good process gets us a good result.

This TPA will give us the leverage that we, in Congress, need to get a fair deal for the American worker because when other countries know that the deal that they agreed to is a deal Congress will vote on they will give us their best offers. Countries aren't going to give us a good agreement if they have to negotiate with 535 people.

Here is how it works. Congress says to the President, when you submit a trade agreement, we will give you an up-or-down vote on three conditions. First, you have got to pursue specific negotiating objectives, 150 of them. Here is what we want to see in a trade agreement and here is what cannot be in a trade agreement.

Second, you have got to keep us informed. You have got to regularly consult with Congress. Congress must have access to all of the negotiating texts. Right now, it is whatever the administration chooses to give us. They control it. They decide on their terms. With TPA, Congress says no, no, no; we, in Congress, get access to these negotiating documents while it is being negotiated. We, in Congress, are accredited to go to the negotiations if we want to, and with the Zinke protocol, which we added to this, if we ourselves can't make it, we will send representatives for ourselves to these negotiations.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, transparency. In the old days, they used to call this thing fast track. President goes out and gets an agreement and then wham, whizzes it through, has Congress vote on it, it is in law, everybody's wondering what the heck just happened, what is in this thing. Not again. No more.

When an agreement is reached, when America gets an agreement with other countries, before the President can even sign off on it, we make it public for 60 days, up on the Internet, everybody can read it for themselves and see what it is. That is in this law. Never done that before. And then the President can sign it, but when he signs it, it doesn't go into effect. When he signs it, it just means he sends it to Congress, and then Congress considers it. Congress considers it and Congress determines whether it is going to happen or not. It is a bill like any other bill. Congress has to pass it. They have to affirmatively pass it for it to go into effect, and if the House of Representatives doesn't like the trade agreement and they vote it down with a simple majority vote, it doesn't happen. That is what this bill does. We have the final say.

I understand a lot of our Members, especially on our side of the aisle, they don't trust this administration. Join the club. Neither do I. That is precisely why I support this bill. TPA puts Congress in the driver's seat.

Mr. Speaker, the world is watching this. The world is watching whether or not--and they are trying to make a decision--is America still America or is America in retreat? Our allies want our leadership. Our adversaries are measuring how much we stack up. Our enemies would love for us to retreat. The world is watching as to whether or not America is going to lead in the world, whether America in the dawn of the 21st century is going to take command of writing the rules of the global economy or cede that command to other countries.

If we establish TPA, we are saying, on a bipartisan basis, we want America to lead; we believe in our country; we believe in our workers; we believe in our economy; we want to open up markets so that we can use American ingenuity and American workers to create American jobs. So we can sell our goods and our services and our products overseas so we can create more good-paying jobs right here at home. That is what this is about. It is about getting us on the playing field.

There have been 100 trade agreements negotiated, signed since 2007 when TPA last expired. We are a party to zero of those. The rest of the world is moving around. The rest of the world is getting better deals. The rest of the world is freezing us out. We have got to get back in this game and lead this game and define this game.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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