[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 77 (Wednesday, May 26, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H3611]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                INTRODUCING THE NAFTA IMPACT RELIEF ACT

  (Mr. SHOWS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SHOWS. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing the NAFTA Impact 
Relief Act. Since NAFTA was introduced in 1994, factories across the 
country and in my district, Centreville, Prentiss, Collins and Magee, 
have shut down and lost thousands of jobs, exploiting cheap foreign 
labor.
  The NAFTA job retraining program is sorely underfunded and really not 
very complete. It misses the point. When people in the rural area lose 
a factory, there is not a job to be retrained for. They need actual 
jobs.
  The NAFTA Impact Relief Act creates new jobs by authorizing the 
Secretary of Commerce to designate NAFTA-impacted communities similar 
to enterprise zones. Businesses would receive tax incentives to locate 
and hire workers in these communities.
  The NAFTA Impact Relief Act is a win-win for business and labor, and 
needs to become law. I urge my colleagues to get behind the bill, 
because there are many, many unemployed Americans in this country 
because of NAFTA. Please help us.

                          ____________________