[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 193 (Wednesday, December 4, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6845-S6847]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              UNITED STATES-MEXICO-CANADA TRADE AGREEMENT

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, over the weekend, we marked 1 year since 
the leaders of the United States, Mexico, and Canada signed the U.S.-
Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement. This modern trade agreement will replace 
the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which has been the 
guiding force for North American trade for the past quarter of a 
century.
  When NAFTA was created, its goal was to remove barriers that impede 
free and fair trade and provide economic benefits to all three 
countries. By any measure, NAFTA has been an overwhelming success, but 
a lot has changed in 25 years since NAFTA went into effect, and it is 
time to bring North American trade into the 21st century. That is 
precisely what the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, USMCA, will do. 
It preserves the hallmark provisions of NAFTA, like duty-free access to 
Mexican and Canadian markets, and adds measures to modernize the 
agreement. The USMCA provides strong protections for intellectual 
property, which is critical to protecting the incredible innovation 
that Americans do right here at home. It also cuts redtape that is 
preventing countless small businesses from tapping into foreign 
markets, and it accounts for e-commerce and digital products, something 
unheard of 25 years ago, at a time when governments around the world 
are proposing all kinds of new taxes on e-commerce.
  It is actually the first free-trade agreement with a digital trade 
chapter. That is why a lot of folks call this NAFTA 2.0. It is better. 
It is stronger. It modernizes the original NAFTA.
  We have been told by the experts that the USMCA will lead to 
increased wealth and jobs here in the United States--about 176,000 new 
jobs. That is

[[Page S6846]]

on top of the 13 million jobs currently supported by trade between 
Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
  It is expected to have a positive impact on every industry sector of 
the U.S. economy and a more than $33 billion increase in our exports--
things we grow, like wild Maine blueberries, and sell overseas, things 
we make and manufacture.
  This isn't just a win for our farmers, manufacturers, and consumers; 
it is a win for our entire country. Coincidentally, it is also a big 
win for Texas. Our State has the 10th largest economy in the world, and 
it is the engine behind much of our country's trade. In 2018, we 
exported more than $137 billion in goods and services to Canada and 
Mexico. With the passage of the USMCA, that number will go up.
  I think the only question left is, When will we get a chance to vote 
on it? Mexico approved the deal in June. Canada is moving toward 
ratification soon, so the only remaining hurdle is the green light from 
Speaker Pelosi and the House of Representatives. We heard early on that 
House Democrats had some concerns with the agreement, but we were told 
by the administration--Ambassador Lighthizer, for example--that he 
thought the negotiations with the House were going well and were being 
done in good faith. Mexico has made commitments related to some of the 
labor provisions that were a concern to our Democratic colleagues. 
President Lopez Obrador even wrote a letter to the Speaker last week 
affirming that they will fulfill the promises they made. Speaker Pelosi 
has said repeatedly over the last year that progress was being made and 
that we are close to a deal and that she hopes we will vote soon. We 
have heard that over and over and over but still no vote.
  Here we are. More than 365 days have gone by since this agreement was 
signed, and the House still hasn't had a vote. Rather than working to 
iron out the final details so we can get the USMCA moving before 
Christmas, the Speaker kicked off the week in Spain talking about the 
Paris accord and climate change. Unfortunately, our Democratic 
colleagues seem to want to talk about anything and everything other 
than the priorities we should have in the Congress. Whether they want 
to be absorbed by impeachment mania or they want to talk about climate 
change in London, in Paris, they want to talk about anything other than 
the work that is right here in front of us that we need to get done: 
things like the USMCA, things like lowering drug prices for consumers, 
things like an infrastructure bill and improving our highways and 
bridges, reducing traffic--which we all hate on a bipartisan basis--
addressing some of the root causes of the mass violence incidents, 
including mental health challenges that many people face who are a 
danger to themselves and others, and things like how can we get people 
who should be conducting background checks on firearm purchases--making 
sure that the laws on the books are being enforced. Those are all 
things we can and should be doing.
  Apparently, that is not the priority for the Speaker. For an entire 
year now, House Democrats have kept American farmers, businesses, 
workers, and consumers waiting. With each day that goes by, while the 
USMCA waits in purgatory, the American people are missing out. We know 
that the longer this goes on, the closer this gets into the active 
election season of 2020, the less likely it is that we are actually 
going to have the bandwidth to get it done. I don't understand why our 
Democratic colleagues are putting new American jobs on hold. Are they 
saying we don't need this increased wealth that this trade agreement 
will bring? Is that really their argument? Are they telling the 
American businesses that they really don't care about leveling the 
playing field? Is that the message we are supposed to get from this 
lack of activity, this inaction?
  With House Democrats working overtime in the futile effort to remove 
the President from office and undo an election, they are squandering 
what may be our biggest opportunity this Congress. Unfortunately, 
partisanship has broken out and obstructed bipartisan desire to get our 
work done, including the USMCA.
  I mentioned some of the other things we could and should be doing. A 
few weeks ago, the minority leader, the Democratic leader, 
singlehandedly blocked a bipartisan bill that the Senator from 
Connecticut, Senator Blumenthal, and I introduced that would bring down 
prescription drug prices. This bill passed--sailed through--the Senate 
Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan, unanimous vote. Yet, when we 
brought it to the floor, our Democratic colleague the minority leader, 
who called this a good bill and well-intentioned, objected to its 
passage.

  Then there is the appropriations process that had been thrown into 
chaos. In August, we had an agreement on spending caps for the next 2 
years. We thought we had overcome the biggest hurdle to getting our 
work done in order to make sure our military was funded and to make 
sure that we were meeting the other financial obligations that the 
Federal Government has to meet, but our Democratic colleagues walked 
back on the commitment they had made in August over a 0.3-percent 
disagreement on Federal spending. That is right--0.3-percent of what 
the Federal Government spends. That is what caused them to backtrack on 
their agreement. They have now kept our military waiting for the 
funding and the stability it needs to keep our Nation safe.
  They have also defeated, at least temporarily, a bipartisan--nearly 
unanimous--prescription drug bill that would bring down prescription 
drug costs, and it is hard for me to understand why.
  I would like to be able to head home for the Christmas holidays with 
some good news--good news for the Texans who are eager to see the USMCA 
ratified. Generally speaking, I am a ``glass half full'' kind of guy, 
not a ``glass half empty,'' but I am losing confidence that we will see 
progress on the USMCA before Christmas. The longer this goes on, the 
less likely we will actually find the opportunity to get it done.
  It seems to me that impeachment mania has consumed this Congress and 
rendered our colleagues on the other side incapable of focusing on 
anything other than removing President Trump from office. Time is 
running out, and I hope the USMCA doesn't become the latest casualty to 
land in Senator Schumer's legislative graveyard.
  At some point, we have to put politics aside and do what we were sent 
here to do, which is to make progress that will benefit the American 
people. Let's hope we can do that during this holiday season before it 
is over.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.
  Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, I have just come on the floor and have 
to chuckle about my friend from Texas in his deciding that it is the 
minority in the Senate that is holding up legislation that needs to be 
brought up when we have been coming to the floor every day after 
Senator McConnell has indicated he is probably the Grim Reaper and 
after we have indicated very clearly that he has turned this into a 
legislative graveyard. So I have to smile when I hear the words from my 
friend.
  Let me set the record straight before I talk about what I came to the 
floor to talk about.
  Amazingly, the House of Representatives, even with the challenge that 
it has in front of it--that it didn't ask for, that it didn't welcome, 
that was brought to it by the continued abuse of power and other 
actions of the President of the United States--is fulfilling its 
constitutional responsibilities. It has passed over 300 different 
pieces of legislation and has sent them over to the U.S. Senate. It is 
my understanding that 250 of those bills are bipartisan bills; yet we 
can't get any of them to be taken up on the floor of the Senate.
  We come to the floor every week. I am involved in efforts every week 
to say: Let's pass the bill that will protect people's pensions. People 
who have worked their whole lives and are close to retirement or are 
already retired in my State who have put money in pensions are getting 
50, 60, 70 percent cuts in their pensions because they got caught in 
the financial crisis. When Wall Street collapsed, the big banks were 
bailed out, but when it came time to bail out the pensions that were 
invested in those big banks--or the IRAs or 401(k)s--somehow, we 
couldn't get the Republican support to do that. I

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would love to see that brought up. It could be brought up any day. It 
could be brought up today, and--bingo--we would pass it.
  The other thing that we could be doing is passing legislation the 
House sent us months ago. There is legislation on preexisting 
conditions. Everybody says we don't want people to lose their 
preexisting conditions coverage on their healthcare. Great. Let's pass 
the legislation that came over from the House in order to protect that. 
Let's make sure that it happens.
  There is the Violence Against Women Act, which has been waiting for 
over 200 days, and there are the efforts on gun safety--things we all 
agree to. There are issues on gun safety and background checks, and 
well over 90 percent of the American public agrees with it. This 
legislation came over from the House months ago, but we can't get any 
action on the Senate floor. There is legislation that deals with carbon 
pollution and the climate crisis. It goes on and on and on.
  There are over 300 different pieces of legislation that have been 
passed by the House while it is also having to address what is clearly 
a constitutional challenge that is very serious for our country. We 
have not had that in front of us, so we could have easily been bringing 
bills forward every week that would make a difference in people's 
lives. We could have been lowering their healthcare costs, lowering 
their prescription drug costs, making sure people's pensions are 
protected, focusing on jobs and education and safety for their children 
while they are in school.
  We welcome it. Let's do it today and tomorrow. Let's go. We have over 
300 bills that the House has sent to the Senate on which there has been 
no action.

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