[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 77 (Tuesday, May 19, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S3009]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 TRADE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, today we will continue our work on the 
trade legislation, which is before us. I know Senators on both sides 
are eager to offer amendments. Yesterday was a good start. We voted on 
a few amendments. We have a half dozen more pending, but we need to 
keep the ball moving. So let me again encourage Members of both parties 
to offer those amendments that they may have. Let me again encourage 
Members to work with the bill managers to get the amendments moving.
  We want to process as many amendments as we can. We know we already 
lost a week to needless filibustering and delaying of this bill, which 
means one less week to have amendments considered. So we need 
cooperation from the leadership across the aisle to ensure we do not 
lose any more time.
  Our friends on the other side seem quite eager to let everyone know 
how uninterested they are in obstruction these days. You will not find 
a happier guy than me if that turns out to be true. So we will see if 
they demonstrate the spirit of cooperation they keep telling us about 
as we continue to debate trade.
  Either way, Members on both sides who recognize the benefits of trade 
to their constituents are determined to pass important export and jobs 
legislation this week. I hope to see it pass by the same kind of 
overwhelming, bipartisan margin we saw in the Finance Committee a few 
weeks ago, because voting to improve this bill is one way to prove you 
care about the middle class. It is one way to prove you care about 
American jobs and American workers.
  One study tells us that knocking down unfair trade barriers in places 
such as Europe and the Pacific could boost our economy by as much as 
$173 billion and that it could support as many as 1.4 million 
additional American jobs.
  In Kentucky, the study says it could bring almost $3 billion in new 
investment and support more than 18,000 additional jobs. That is in my 
State alone. We know a lot in the Commonwealth about the benefits of 
trade. More than half a million Kentucky jobs are already related to 
international trade. We know that those kinds of jobs typically pay 
more than other jobs.
  Kentuckians also know that a lot of rhetoric on the other side of 
this issue does not always ``stand the test of fact and scrutiny,'' as 
President Obama put it.
  The 7,000 workers at the Toyota plant in Georgetown, KY, might agree. 
Following a trade agreement we recently enacted with South Korea, they 
are now working hard to export Camrys--Camrys--made in Kentucky to 
Korean consumers. Given some of the overheated language surrounding 
that U.S.-Korea trade agreement, you may be surprised to hear about 
these automotive workers in my State who are building Camrys in 
Kentucky and sending them to Korea. But the truth is that just about 
every serious public official knows that eliminating the restrictions 
that hurt American workers and American goods is good for our country.
  It is something Republicans have long believed. It is an area where 
President Obama now agrees, as well. It is an area where many serious 
Democrats also agree. So I hope we can join together to score a victory 
for American workers. To get there, let's work now to offer amendments, 
to get them pending, and to engage in substantive debate rather than 
more pointless delay for its own sake.

                          ____________________