[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 155 (Wednesday, September 25, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S5673]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              UNITED STATES-MEXICO-CANADA TRADE AGREEMENT

  Mr. GRASSLEY. We are getting toward the end of the year, and one of 
the issues I would like to get done--which has to go through the House 
of Representatives first--is the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. In 
regard to that agreement's helping agriculture, I want to start by 
laying out the fact that there is a lot of anxiety in agricultural 
America.
  Even though the harvest is about to start across Iowa, we had a 
really difficult, tough spring getting the crops in. There is a crop to 
be harvested, however, and farmers will now be doing that job. They 
hope they can cover their costs. And while they are doing that, they 
are thinking about putting in next year's crop.
  Passing the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement would inject more certainty 
into the plans that the farmers have about this year's harvest and the 
plans they have for next year's crop. Passage of that would signal to 
the world that we here in the Congress are very serious about passing 
new, modern trade arrangements.
  Yet we are running out of calendar days in 2019. Congress must step 
up and deliver for our hard-working farmers, as well as workers in 
America and small business in America and, in a sense, by getting this 
agreement passed, helping all of America. The time for the U.S.-Mexico-
Canada Agreement is now.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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