[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 80 (Tuesday, May 14, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2831-S2833]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. JONES:
  S. 1453. A bill to amend the Trade Act of 1974 to provide adjustment 
assistance to farmers adversely affected by reduced exports resulting 
from tariffs imposed as retaliation for United States tariff increases, 
and for other purposes; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. President, I rise because I am deeply concerned about 
what is happening across the country to our farmers as a result of the 
President's trade war with China.
  Let me first say, I agree with the President 100 percent that we need 
fair trade deals and that we have to make sure American workers and 
consumers are not being taken for a ride by other countries, especially 
rogue countries and bad actors like China. Yet, since this trade war 
began last year, these tariffs are having the complete opposite effect 
on the people they are supposed to help. That is because tariffs are 
taxes, plain and simple. Tariffs are taxes, and they are being raised 
every day by the administration.
  The President insists that tariffs force China to pay money to the 
U.S. Treasury, which is just not true. It is just not factually 
accurate at all. It is also misleading to the American people. When a 
tariff is placed on a Chinese good, it is the American company that is 
importing that product, in addition to the American consumer who 
ultimately buys it, that pays that additional price. It is just like 
adding a sales tax to any consumer good or to any commodity on which a 
tariff has been levied. From businesses to farmers, to consumers, these 
taxes are being paid for by Americans. That is not politics; that is 
economics.
  The President thinks these tariffs will somehow punish China for its 
bad behavior, but it is our people who are suffering right now. Last 
week, we saw a report that showed that the cost of these tariffs had 
fallen entirely on U.S. businesses and on U.S. households. Just 
yesterday, China announced it is planning on retaliating, once again, 
with increased tariffs on $60 billion worth of American-made goods, 
which sent the stock market into a tailspin.
  Unemployment is incredibly low today, and the economy is doing well 
today, but across the country, there are so many people who don't 
always feel the effects of that booming economy. Yes, they have jobs, 
but they also have families, healthcare costs, and other costs, so they 
don't always feel the economy is doing as well for them as it is for 
others whom they see on the news, on TV, and in Washington, DC. Working 
folks aren't going to feel the true benefits from this economic growth 
and from the tax cuts of 2017 if they are paying higher taxes on the 
products they are buying every single day.
  Just yesterday, the President was talking about the tariffs and 
feeling a little bit of pain but about how great a deal this is going 
to be and how our government will be happy. The President said: ``[O]ur 
government is happy because we're taking in tens of billions of 
dollars.'' Yet that money is being brought into the Treasury on the 
backs of working people--hard-working American taxpayers. It is not the 
Chinese companies; it is not the Chinese people; it is not the Mexican 
people; and it is not the Canadian people. It is the American public 
that is paying that money into the U.S. Treasury.
  Tariffs are taxes, and we are all going to pay because of this trade 
war. Call them whatever you want, but that is the effect they are going 
to have on the wallets of American taxpayers. Even the President's own 
economic advisers admitted this week that it will be the Americans who 
will suffer as a result of this trade war, with the increased taxes 
being placed on them every day through the consumer goods they are 
purchasing.
  In Alabama, our farmers, in particular, are hurting, and that is an 
understatement. Tariffs are affecting a cross-section of our 
manufacturing workforce. It has our automobile dealers concerned 
because of the threat of foreign automobile tariffs. Yet, even in the 
best of times, it is the farmers who are at the most risk. Farming is a 
risky business, and their margins are very tight. Many farmers in 
Alabama have already suffered devastating losses from natural 
disasters, like Hurricane Michael. Quite frankly, they are suffering 
another congressional disaster right now--in the words of my colleague 
and friend Senator Isakson from Georgia--because we can't put politics 
aside quickly enough to get disaster aid to farmers in the South, to 
folks who have suffered from flooding, or to folks who have suffered 
from wildfires. We can't do this because of politics, so now they are 
suffering. The farmers whom I visited back in South Alabama after 
Hurricane Michael are suffering now from the congressional disaster.
  The last thing in the world they need is another administration 
disaster that is being manufactured because of the Chinese tariffs on 
their crops. In particular, soybeans are being hit. Soybean farming 
supports more than 11,000 jobs in Alabama, but soybean prices are at 
the lowest they have been in a decade. You can see from this chart how 
they started up. It was over $10 just in April of 2018--over $10. Now 
it is just above $8, and it is continuing to slide. The longer this 
goes on, the more it hurts.
  Cotton farmers have been hit. Cotton has had an almost 25-percent 
reduction in the market price since these tariffs took effect. We have 
record low unemployment in the country right now; yet

[[Page S2832]]

we have a growing number of bankruptcies in farm country. I was looking 
at reports just today that showed the rise in the number of 
bankruptcies, the point being that these are hitting people now.
  We all want a great deal. We all want to make sure the President gets 
a good deal for the American public, for the American consumer, but 
this is hurting people right now, and they will not be able to recover 
if this does not end soon. Unless the President can reach a deal soon, 
we can expect prices to continue to deteriorate and for the economic 
conditions in farm country to get even worse, which will put in 
jeopardy generations of farmers who may get run out of business.
  This is a dire situation. I am not trying to just light fire 
somewhere. This is really serious for these folks. You only have to 
watch the news every day. These are people who have supported the 
President of the United States and who voted for the President of the 
United States. They want a good deal, and they want a fair deal, but 
this has been going on for a long time, and there does not seem to be 
any end in sight. Many of my State's farmers--probably most of my 
State's farmers--support the President, as do others around the 
country. They have had his back over the last 2 or 3 years, even during 
the campaign. Yet, in return, these trade policies have taken money out 
of their pockets.
  When this first started over a year ago, they believed they would get 
a good deal soon. They believed they could get crops in the field, that 
they could get their loans paid, and that they could recover from the 
disasters that had hit them, but it has just dragged on and on. Every 
time we see a new round of tweets or a new press conference, we talk 
about what a great deal this is going to be. Yet, when you look behind 
the curtain, everything is different, and the trade war goes on and on 
and on.
  I fear he is not listening to these farmers or to the Members of 
Congress on both sides of the aisle--like our Finance chairman--who are 
telling him that these policies are hurting farmers, that they are 
devastating farmers. I am not sure how much longer they can hang on in 
this trade war. Many will. Many can hang on. Yet others cannot. Whether 
the next generation of farmers will take up the mantle of farming 
remains to be seen.
  This is one reason I am introducing a bill today to update the Trade 
Adjustment Assistance Program, which was originally created by my 
colleague Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, to provide 
help for farmers and producers who have been hurt by these retaliatory 
tariffs. TAA was originally created to help provide assistance to 
workers who were impacted by trade, but it was updated in 2002 to 
include assistance to growers, producers, and fishermen. This bill that 
I introduce today, as well as a companion bill that has been introduced 
in the House, would, once again, update the program to help folks who 
are hurting because of trade actions that have been carried out by our 
government--not by another government but by ours.
  Look, the fact is, no matter how many legislative stopgaps my 
colleagues and I propose or bailouts the President offers, the massive 
losses from which farmers and producers suffer are not going to end 
until the President calls off this trade war.
  We all want better trade deals, and farmers want access to global 
markets. China has, without a doubt, been a bad actor on many trade 
issues--a rogue country on trade issues. We should be working with our 
allies in Europe and elsewhere to hold China accountable. Instead, the 
administration has decided to go it alone. We are picking fights with 
friends over our own trade issues with them rather than working through 
diplomacy to try to work those deals. We are picking fights with them, 
and we are going it alone against China when we so desperately need our 
friends to help us. China is a growing concern around the world, and we 
need global partners to help us with our trade issues to try to make 
sure the global economy stays stable.
  I will be absolutely thrilled if the President of the United States 
negotiates a great deal. I hope he negotiates the best deal ever--the 
one that he says he is going to negotiate. I hope and pray we get that 
great deal and that we can do a trade deal with China that is fair and 
better for America than it has ever been in the history of this 
country. For all of our sakes, I hope it happens. I really do. This is 
not a partisan issue. This is about where we are as a country. I hope 
for the best for him, but, right now, these tariffs are having the 
opposite effect, and it is hurting so many people.
  What many of us fear is going to happen in the cynical world we live 
in today--and we all get caught up in it, including Members of this 
body--is that when the President finally wakes up and realizes he has 
done irreparable harm and irreparable damage to so many of his own 
supporters with these tariffs and when he wakes up and approaches 2020 
and understands that his support may be eroding among those who form 
the core backbone of his support, he will scramble to make a deal 
regardless of whether it will be a good deal or not but a deal 
nonetheless and regardless of whether America will come out on top.
  When all is said and done, we can claim victory, but it may be a very 
hollow victory because, in going forward, we may have a little bit 
better deal or we may have a much better deal, but it will not change 
what is happening today or what has happened over the last year. Even 
if a deal is struck, we have already lost.
  Farmers will still have to be digging themselves out of this 
financial hole for a very long time. Many will have to declare 
bankruptcy and lose their farms because they couldn't wait out the 
President's trade gamble and his tough talk.
  To mitigate the tariffs' harmful impacts, the administration is 
providing some aid to help farmers who are struggling as a result of 
the trade war. They did so last year, and they need it, but those 
government bailouts--and that is what they are, they are bailouts--are 
being paid by other American taxpayers in order to alleviate the pain 
inflicted by the administration's policies.
  That is right. Working families across the country are being asked to 
step up. We do those things. We are charitable people. If somebody is 
in pain, we want to do that and help, but when the pain is being caused 
by the very person who is causing us to then step up, that makes no 
sense.
  Folks, these handouts will not come close to making up for the losses 
these farmers have suffered, and it is sure not a long-term solution 
for a healthy trade market.
  The biggest problem for these farmers is that they don't want 
handouts. They don't want government subsidies. They don't want 
handouts to them for the problems they are facing because of these 
trade policies. They want their markets. They want to go to China. They 
want to go to places around the world and share their products. They 
are proud of their products. We should be proud of those products.
  We should not be just simply telling farmers: Do not worry because we 
will pay for you to grow your product. We are not worried about your 
markets because we will buy your soybeans. We will buy the cotton. We 
will buy those things if China doesn't do it. That is not what these 
farmers want. They don't want that charity. They want their markets. 
They work hard for those markets.
  So how much more can our farmers take? How much more? How long can 
they go on like this? At what point will they be forced to cut their 
losses and find another way to support their families while we 
negotiate with China, while we tweet the fact that a good deal is 
coming?
  At what point will Members of this body and the House of 
Representatives who ignore the math and the suffering of their 
constituents--at what point will those in this body and the House of 
Representatives who ignore the suffering of their constituents by 
supporting these harmful trade policies, at what point do they stand 
up?
  There are so many people I have talked to who do not support these 
trade policies, but yet they are silent, and they say: Give the 
President time. He is going to get a good deal.
  At what point does it come where they recognize the suffering of the 
farmers of the United States and my State of Alabama? At what point do 
they finally stand up and say enough is enough?

[[Page S2833]]

  Over the years, the Congress of the United States has ceded a lot of 
authority to the executive branch of government, and now it is coming 
home to roost. We can't do much of anything except give speeches like 
this. We can try to introduce bills that probably will never get to the 
Senate floor. We can go home and listen to the pain, listen to the 
suffering, listen to people who so badly want to support the President 
and what he is doing, as all of us do for these new trade deals, but 
the fact is, we have ceded so much power to the executive branch of 
government. It is time for Congress to stand up. It is time for people 
to speak out to help their farmers, to let the administration know that 
this cannot go on much longer. We have to stand up and stop this pain 
as quickly as we can.
  We can do it. The President can do it. He has smart people 
surrounding him. They need to explain to him again that these tariffs 
are being paid by the American people, not another country. Let's get 
this negotiated, and let's stop the bleeding for the American farmer as 
soon as we possibly can.
                                 ______