Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act -- Continued

Floor Speech

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I rise in support of the trade promotion
authority bill which has been debated on the Senate floor the last few
days.

I begin, though, by complimenting my good friend and colleague from
Ohio--one of the most well-respected Members of this body, I think an
example of a true American statesman, and certainly one of our best
U.S. Trade Representatives who knows a lot about the topic that we have
been debating. So I thank him for his tremendous service for the people
of Ohio and of our country.

The TPA bill we have been debating is going to be good for the
country. It will help move our country forward, provide tremendous
opportunities for growth and expansion--for our farmers, ranchers,
businesses, fishermen, workers, and those in the high-tech sector.

As Senator Portman mentioned, 95 percent of all global consumers lie
outside of the United States--95 percent. What we need to do is access
those consumers to have more opportunity.

Currently, it is estimated that over 38 million jobs in the United
States are tied to trade. The trade agreements we are talking about on
the Senate floor that would come after TPA will create hundreds of
thousands of new jobs and new opportunities for Americans. These are
good jobs, and we need more jobs.

This has been one of the weakest recoveries of any major recession in
American history. We are barely growing at 1.5 percent, 2 percent GDP
growth. These are not traditional levels of American growth. Why? Why
has our growth been so slow?

Well, there are many reasons. But I think the overregulation of our
economy by the Federal Government clearly is one of the major reasons,
and trade agreements are exactly the kind of boost we need. What do
trade agreements do? They reduce regulations, they cut redtape, they
reduce taxes on goods coming in to American families. We need this kind
of policy, in terms of less regulation and more freedom for our
domestic economy and internationally. That is how we are going to get
moving again. That is how we are going to get this economy moving
again. That is how we are going to get Americans working again. That is
why TPA is so important to begin this process. But TPA is also about
American leadership--bipartisan U.S. American leadership.

Since the end of World War II, every administration--Democratic,
Republican, it doesn't matter--has wanted to lead on trade, has wanted
to obtain trade promotion authority, and that has been critical to
American leadership, global leadership, and helping our businesses and
workers.

It is also critical to make sure we have a seat at the table, to set
the rules for the global trading regime as we have traditionally done--
again, bipartisan, Democrats and Republicans for decades have been
doing this--and to help make sure we are leveling the playing field for
our workers.

The American workers--the American fisherman, the American rancher,
the American farmer--can compete against anyone in the world with a
level playing field. We have done that for decades. That is the
American way, but we have to be in the game. We need to be the country
setting the rules. We need to be the country that lays out trade
agreements that have strong intellectual property rights protection,
that open markets, that get rid of state-owned enterprises, that have
strong enforcement provisions--so when countries cheat in global trade,
we have the ability to enforce rules and strike back if we need to, to
protect our economy, our workers, our farmers, our fishermen.

I wish to talk a little bit about free trade as it relates to my home
State of Alaska.

Here are some facts about trade in Alaska: Already, in my State of
Alaska there are over 90,000 jobs tied to trade. That is more than one
in five of all jobs in the Alaska economy tied to global trade,
particularly trade to the Asia-Pacific region.

We are also a huge recipient of foreign direct investment--foreign
direct investment that employs Alaskans. These are good jobs. Fourteen
thousand Alaskans are directly employed by foreign companies, and there
are tens of thousands more who are indirectly benefited. So many
Alaskans count on these important jobs.

In terms of exports, of course we are a very large State with a
relatively small population--a little over 700,000 citizens. But in
2013, the State of Alaska exported over $6 billion in goods and
services. Per capita exports, we are a powerhouse. We are one of the
strongest exporters in the country. And in terms of fish and seafood,
we are the superpower of exports--not per capita but absolute exports.
In 2013, we exported roughly $2.3 billion in seafood and fish.

The fishing industry is a very important industry for a lot of States
in our country, but more than half of all seafood harvested in America
comes from Alaska's waters. It is also one of the biggest employers in
my State. In fact, it is the biggest employer in my State, even more
than some of the resource industries. There are 78,000 Alaskans
employed in this industry, and these are the epitome of small
businesses.

Every fishing vessel, when you look at one, is a small business. What
do they do? They take risks. I am sure some have seen ``The Deadliest
Catch.'' A lot of times they are family-owned. They work hard, and they
produce a great product--a great product--king crab, fresh Alaska
salmon--a great product. These are classic American small businesses,
which brings me to my amendment.

As my colleague from Ohio mentioned, there are a lot of discussions
right now. We sure hope Members of this body are going to have
opportunities to present amendments to make the TPA bill stronger.

The amendment I have filed, that I want to offer, is a simple
amendment to make a principal negotiating objective under TPA focusing
on making sure members of the fishing community--American Fish,
American Seafoods--have opportunities for more open markets overseas.
This will benefit the hard-working fishing families all across America.

This amendment will ensure that of the many TPA objectives, this one
will be in there--more access to markets, more opportunities for these
great American small businesses.

As I mentioned, not only in terms of Alaska is this an important
industry, this is a hugely important industry for the United States. In
2013, our country exported over $5.5 billion worth of fish and seafood.
The commercial fishing industry in the United States in 2013 employed
over 1 million Americans, with an income of $32 billion. Let me repeat
that: Over 1 million Americans in this industry nationwide and $32
billion in income--and, again, most of these are classic American small
businesses. This is who TPA should be focused on.

As I mentioned, the current TPA bill has negotiating objectives for a
lot of important industries in our great country--textile, agriculture,
services, manufactured goods. There are about 20 specific trading
negotiating objectives that the TPA bill directs the U.S. Trade
Representative to get in terms of the free-trade agreements he will try
to seek once TPA has been passed, and this is the way it should be.

Those are all great sectors. Agriculture is hugely important to our
country. But we should also have a similar negotiating objective for
another very important industry in this country--our seafood industry,
the fishing industry.

This is a simple amendment. It asks that the U.S. trade negotiator
focus as a principal objective to make sure this industry has
opportunities just like all the other industries do and, importantly,
particularly as we are trying to work through this bill to see what
amendments we can get on it, this is a very bipartisan amendment.

Senator Markey of Massachusetts, on the other side, has a lot of
hard-working fishing families. So from Alaska to Massachusetts, this is
a very bipartisan bill that will help small businesses, and it help
coastal communities that rely so much on fishing.

Finally, I want to talk about TPA and go back to the issue of
American leadership. TPA, open trade, and free-trade agreements can
work for America. They can work for our workers, farmers, businesses,
ranchers, fishermen. I know. I have had the opportunity of seeing this
firsthand.

I worked as an Assistant Secretary of State under Condoleezza Rice on
economic issues, on trade issues, and a number of the free-trade
agreements we currently have in force were ones I had an opportunity to
work on with many members in the Federal Government.

Let me give two examples: the free-trade agreement we had with
Singapore and the free-trade agreement we had with Australia. Once
these were passed and the barriers to our exports came down, American
exports skyrocketed to these countries. As I mentioned, American
workers can compete with anyone. Give us a level playing field, and we
will take advantage of it.

U.S. exports, in terms of goods to Australia, rose 33 percent between
2004 and 2009. U.S. goods exports to Singapore were up $21 billion--31
percent--from 2003 to 2009.

I met with the Singapore Ambassador today. He reminded me that we
actually have a trade surplus with Singapore, as I believe we do with
Australia, because of these free-trade agreements.

So free-trade agreements are a win-win for our country economically,
but they also importantly deepen the economic ties that bind our
country and our citizens to some of our most important friends and
allies--such as the country of Singapore, such as the country of
Australia, and that is happening.

Finally, though, trade is also about American leadership, it is about
American confidence, the ability to say: Open the markets and we can
compete with anyone. We need that confidence back.

For too long under this administration we have been disengaged from
the world. For too long we have allowed other countries to be in the
driver's seat globally--where we have not been driving events, we have
been reacting to events internationally. For too long we have been
withdrawing, for too long we have been leading from behind, and for too
long we have not been showing confidence globally; we have been showing
weakness. Weakness is provocative, and you see that all over the world.

Now, I have been critical of this administration's approach to
foreign policy in a whole host of areas--its foreign
policy of global disengagement, its lack of confidence, and American
leadership in the world. But I applaud the President for what he is
doing now. I applaud the President for his strategy of rebalancing the
focus of military forces and trade in the Asia-Pacific.

I applaud the President for doing the hard work of seeking TPA. These
are never easy votes. These are never easy votes. But we should support
what he is doing because it means America is back. We are engaging
again. We are not leading from behind. We are leading the way countless
administrations in the past have done with regard to global trade.

This will enable us to determine our future, to drive it, not react
to it. I urge my colleagues to vote for this TPA bill because it is a
vote for American leadership.

I also urge my colleagues to vote for the amendment that is going to
help many small businesses throughout the United States and coastal
communities and our strong fishing communities.

My amendment will strengthen the TPA bill, and I encourage all my
colleagues to support that amendment as well.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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