[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 49 (Tuesday, March 16, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S1540]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Nomination of Katherine C. Tai

  Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, the Senate will soon take a procedural 
vote on the nomination of Katherine C. Tai to serve as the next U.S. 
Trade Representative.
  For Senators who watched any of Ms. Tai's nomination hearing before 
the committee, you will know that Ms. Tai has a whole lot of fans on 
both sides of the aisle here in the Senate. So I am just going to take 
a few minutes to discuss some of the reasons why I think Ms. Tai is a 
terrific choice for this job.
  First, she knows that the name of the game when it comes to this 
country's trade policy is protecting and creating high-skill, high-wage 
jobs. Our country saw, for the past 4 years, that a strategy of sending 
mean tweets and acting on chaos does not translate into more good jobs. 
Under President Biden, and with Katherine Tai leading USTR, I am 
confident we will have a more effective approach
  Ms. Tai also has exactly the right experience for the job. She led 
crackdowns against China's trade cheating and job rip-offs. As the top 
trade staffer on the Ways and Means Committee, she was at the forefront 
to improve the new NAFTA when the Trump administration handed to 
Congress a deal that just wasn't strong enough for American workers. 
She already has a long track record of achieving wins for America's 
workers, businesses, farmers, and ranchers.
  Second, Ms. Tai has committed to the Finance Committee that she will 
work to bring more transparency to trade policy. Bringing more sunlight 
to the country's trade agreements ought to be a priority that every 
Senator shares. That is why I am glad that President Biden has chosen 
somebody with congressional experience for the role of USTR.
  The Constitution gives the Congress authority over international 
trade. Unfortunately, Congress, over the years, has delegated some of 
its power to the executive branch. So what that means is, now, all 
sides need to work together as partners, with open channels of 
communication, accountability, and transparency. And when I talk about 
transparency, I am talking about transparency with the American people. 
I know that Ms. Tai will continue to raise the bar for transparency and 
communication with Congress because she has been on our side of 
policymaking, and she has already proved that that kind of openness and 
accountability is a key priority for her.
  With a former Senator in the White House and a former House staffer 
at USTR, I believe there would be a productive partnership with 
Congress so we can get trade done right and make sure that trade policy 
creates those high-skill, high-wage jobs that are a priority for every 
elected official.
  Finally, there is another Finance Committee priority that I will just 
mention. On Thursday, the committee will hold a hearing on the subject 
of stamping out forced labor around the world. Forced labor is evil, it 
is morally repugnant, and it is a direct attack on workers in our 
country because, when American workers have to compete against slave 
labor, everybody loses. It is truly a race to absolute rock bottom when 
it comes to labor rights.
  Ms. Tai is committed to President Biden's Build Back Better agenda. A 
key part of that agenda is ensuring that our workers are competing on a 
level playing field with the rest of the world. It is certainly not a 
level playing field when other countries are producing goods with slave 
labor.
  Our government has laws on the books that can crack down on countries 
using slave labor and keep those products out of our market, but it is 
going to require an unwavering commitment to tough trade enforcement. 
This will continue to be an area of special focus for the Finance 
Committee.
  Our colleague Senator Brown and I have worked on this issue for a 
long, long time. I know Ms. Tai is committed to working with us on it, 
and I know that she will work with colleagues on the other side of the 
aisle on this and other issues. It is an opportunity to stand up for 
what is right around the world and protect American jobs and wages at 
the same time.
  So Katherine Tai is qualified. She has the right diversity of 
experience. She has her priorities right, which is to get more American 
workers into the winner's circle of trade policy, and she is going to 
do it in a way that promotes openness, accountability, and 
transparency.
  I believe Ms. Tai is going to have strong bipartisan support here in 
the Senate when we vote in just a few minutes. I want Senators on both 
sides of the aisle to know that Ms. Tai has consistently, throughout 
her time in public service, worked in a bipartisan way with respect to 
ensuring that, at a time when modern communications and transportation 
have, to some extent, shrunk the world and trade has gotten to be more 
and more important, she is going to be on the side of workers. She is 
going to be on the side of trade done right. I am with her 100 percent 
of the way.
  I urge all Senators to support Katherine Tai for this crucial post at 
USTR.
  I yield the floor.