Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I have heard from both sides of the aisle the term ``winners and losers.''

Our workers who are laid off because of the deals that have been put before this Congress in the last 15 years are not losers. They are the most productive workers in the world. How dare you call them losers.

We are all patting each other on the back here. We are talking about a piece of legislation that is like putting the cart before the horse.

We want to prevent people from being laid off--engineers, laborers, technicians. Our trade deals have been a joke. Not one person has come to this floor to explain to us--and I know that is not the bill we are talking about, that has already been deep-sixed in its past--not one person has come to the floor and told us how these jobs are going to be created through trade.

We are not antitrade. What we want is fair trade deals. How dare you call our workers losers.

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Mr. Speaker, I say that through you to them.

All we have been hearing over the past few months is that we need to grant the President fast-track authority so we can finalize the Trans-Pacific Partnership because it will be good for American workers; and yet here we are today, voting on a package to prepare for the opposite: the loss of American jobs because of a trade deal that doesn't put American workers first.

I could support the Trade Adjustment Assistance. You need to help those people who are going to be laid off because of these trade deals that are so great so that they kept their jobs or some other jobs were created. Where are those jobs?

If American workers are going to have the rug pulled out from under them because of trade deals, something should be there to break their fall. The sad reality is that we need TAA. And even the sadder reality is that, despite the great need, this TAA bill before us today is inadequate.

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The trade adjustment bill we are voting on today contains a number of flaws. The TAA has been used as a bargaining chip to push the TPA over the finish line. I would prefer that we didn't need a TAA at all. Trade Adjustment Assistance is not preferable to a job.

Secondly, the bill cuts funding for the worker from $575 to $450 million per year. You got your pound of flesh. At a time when trade is expanding, this bill slashes funding for worker training by 20 percent.

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