[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 139 (Friday, November 14, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1575-E1576]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 HONORING THE LIVES OF FORMER REPRESENTATIVES PHIL CRANE AND LANE EVANS

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                            HON. KEVIN BRADY

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 13, 2014

  Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to celebrate the life 
and achievements of our late former colleague and friend, Congressman 
Phil Crane of Illinois. My memories of Phil are twofold.
  First, I will remember Phil's kindness to me as a junior Member of 
Congress doing my best to earn a seat on the Ways and Means Committee. 
As a much more senior Member, Phil was incredibly busy with his many 
responsibilities but he made time to talk to me, advise me and help me 
in any way he could so that I could join him on the committee. I have 
never forgotten the example he set for me during that exciting time and 
in turn, I have tried to do the same for our junior colleagues who talk 
to me about their interest in joining the committee.
  And of course, I remember and respect the strong intellectual legacy 
he leaves behind as an early leader of our conservative movement in the 
United States. It was his well-informed and carefully thought out 
philosophy that shaped his career as an academic, elected official and 
presidential candidate. Near and dear to his heart was the principle of 
free trade which he embraced with great enthusiasm.
  As a champion of free enterprise, Phil Crane understood the link 
between trade and open markets in advancing free institutions. In his 
farewell speech to this Body, he noted how trade offers the opportunity 
for personal contact between peoples that nurtures democratic values, 
and presents people in all countries with an opportunity to build a 
better life. He devoted himself to advancing this notion of the power 
of the marketplace as a catalyst for change around the globe and worked 
tirelessly to create opportunities for U.S. growth and high paying 
export-oriented jobs for U.S. workers.
  During his tenure in the House, Phil was Ranking Member on the Ways 
and Means Trade Subcommittee for a number of years before becoming 
Chairman of the Trade Subcommittee in 1995. His leadership was 
formative in trade legislation enacted over two decades.
  In his position on the Ways and Means Committee, he led the effort to 
pass the legislation implementing the North American Free Trade 
Agreement in 1993 to foster the integration of the U.S., Canadian and 
Mexican economies to promote growth in each member country and enhance 
overall North American competitiveness in the global market.
  Phil Crane then led the effort in 1994 to pass the implementing 
legislation for the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs 
and Trade (GATT), which established the World Trade Organization (WTO) 
and the global legal framework we know today that governs multilateral 
trade and effective trade dispute resolution.
  For many years, he championed legislation to promote growth and 
combat narcotics trafficking through the Caribbean Basin Economic 
Recover Act and the Andean Trade Preferences Act. He also advanced 
legislation renewing the Generalized System of Preferences, which 
promotes development through trade-led economic growth in developing 
countries around the world. Phil Crane understood the way these 
preferential trade programs advanced a more open economic environment 
where U.S. firms could compete, while creating legitimate economic 
opportunities for people in nations struggling to overcome poverty and 
abject circumstances
  Later, as Chairman of the Trade Subcommittee, Phil Crane was 
successful in the passage of the Trade and Development Act of 2000, 
which contained several significant component parts. Among them were 
the African Growth and Opportunity Act, legislation Phil authored to 
open a meaningful framework and dialogue for trade relations with sub-
Saharan African countries; and the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership 
Act, which he sponsored to grant Caribbean countries NAFTA parity 
treatment in the U.S. market to avoid an unintended consequence of 
Mexico's preferential access under NAFTA.
  As Trade Subcommittee Chairman, Phil Crane also led the effort to 
Normalize trade relations with China, which established a predictable 
framework for trade relations between our countries through China's 
membership in the World Trade Organization. He also championed the 
Normalization of trade relations with numerous former Communist 
countries following the fall of the Soviet Union, including the opening 
of trade relations with Vietnam for the first time after the war, to 
help lock in market reforms in these countries.
  Phil Crane was also influential in advancing the Trade Act of 2002, 
which authorized the negotiation of the U.S.-Central America Free Trade 
Agreement (CAFTA), as well as the U.S. free trade agreements now in 
effect with Colombia, Peru, Singapore and South Korea. The final 
negotiation and implementation of these landmark agreements after his 
departure from the House stand as a lasting testament to the path that 
Phil Crane forged for U.S. trade relations in the world.
  A champion of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and its 
predecessor the U.S. Customs Service, Phil Crane understood not only 
the agency's law enforcement and security mandate, but also the 
important role the agency plays in supporting our economy through trade 
facilitation. He was a proponent throughout his tenure as Trade 
Subcommittee Chairman of funding customs modernization efforts, such as 
the Automated Commercial Environment (known as ACE), which is now 
operational. Throughout all of these efforts, Phil worked tirelessly to 
advance opportunities for U.S. growth and high paying export-oriented 
jobs for U.S. workers. In this process, he also spearheaded legislation 
for hundreds of miscellaneous tariff bills designed to further the 
competitiveness of U.S. firms in the global market by eliminating 
import duties on products used as inputs in U.S. manufacturing that 
could not be acquired from U.S. sources. Through such legislation and 
other bills which facilitated the opening of overseas markets to U.S. 
exports, Phil promoted U.S. workers and their ability to compete in 
markets around the world.

[[Page E1576]]

  Fundamentally, Phil Crane understood the importance of trade to the 
U.S. economy and U.S. jobs. He also saw the economy as an important 
force for change in our world in advancing democratic institutions and 
economic freedoms overseas, while promoting high-paying export-oriented 
jobs here at home. His legacy on trade is with us today and will be 
felt by generations to come.

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