[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 17 (Thursday, February 4, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H558-H559]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS

  (Mr. DREIER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, recently the Economist Magazine had an 
article in which they said it was time for the President to get tough, 
and in it, it pointed to the fact that he needed to be serious about 
the trade issue. It congratulated him for not taking a step backward 
toward protectionism. But the fact of the matter is, by doing nothing, 
we are taking a step backward.
  Now I'm glad to see that the Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Locke, is 
today launching an initiative which will encourage greater trade. Well, 
it's wonderful to say that we need to focus on a small business, 21st 
century, export-oriented trade policy, but the fact is the only way 
that we can do that is if we pry open new markets for union and 
nonunion workers in the United States of America at companies like 
Caterpillar, Whirlpool, and other companies. We can do that by doing 
what the President failed to do in his State of the Union message after 
making a great statement about trade, and that is: send up the 
agreements that are pending that have been signed for Panama, Colombia, 
and South Korea. The votes are here if we could have that on the floor 
of the House ASAP so that we create good American jobs.

[[Page H559]]



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