[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 103 (Tuesday, June 13, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2067-S2068]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petition or memorial was laid before the Senate and was 
referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-28. A resolution adopted by the Senate of Louisiana 
     urging the United States Congress to enact a trade policy 
     that supports United States businesses and workers while 
     penalizing global polluters; to the Committee on Finance.

                        Senate Resolution No. 53

       Whereas, Chinese government-owned industry is an arm of the 
     communist party and strives to increase its influence over 
     the global economy by pursuing predatory, unfair trade 
     practices designed to steal intellectual property and destroy 
     competition from the United States; and
       Whereas, China's dominance of key components of the global 
     supply chain, including those related to critical minerals, 
     represents a threat to United States economic security and 
     economic and social development; and
       Whereas, China, by far the world's largest polluter, 
     accounts for approximately thirty percent of global carbon 
     dioxide (CO2) emissions and subsidizes its exports 
     by not imposing or enforcing reasonable environmental and 
     labor standards; and
       Whereas, the United States has eliminated more carbon 
     emissions than any other country in the last fifteen years, 
     and its economy is forty-four percent more carbon efficient 
     than the world average; and
       Whereas, United States' manufacturers are more efficient in 
     nearly every industry from steel to solar panels to 
     automobiles and yet are forced to compete with companies in 
     China and elsewhere that face few limits on how much they 
     pollute; and
       Whereas, goods produced in China, on average, generate 
     three times the CO2 emissions of equivalent goods 
     made in the United States, and goods produced in Russia emit 
     four times the emissions; and
       Whereas, minerals mined in China are more than twice as 
     carbon intensive as those mined in the United States, the 
     average carbon intensity of Russian oil is at least thirty-
     three percent higher than United States oil, and Russian 
     natural gas is sixty percent more greenhouse gas intensive 
     than United States natural gas; and
       Whereas, many rural Americans are being left behind 
     economically, suffering from severe poverty, poor health 
     care, and few economic opportunities, making them 
     increasingly vulnerable to crime and the opioid crisis; and
       Whereas, the average per capita income for rural Americans 
     is only forty-six thousand dollars, compared to roughly sixty 
     thousand dollars for all Americans, and the poverty rate in 
     rural America is fourteen point four percent, compared with 
     eleven point nine percent nationwide; and
       Whereas, United States rural communities have lower wages, 
     property taxes, and land prices, which should give them a 
     competitive advantage in attracting investments in 
     manufacturing that provide revenue streams that help fund 
     local schools and infrastructure; and
       Whereas, manufacturing jobs pay a more important role in 
     the rural economy than in urban areas, accounting for a 
     greater share of jobs and earnings; and
       Whereas, United States' trade policy, which has given 
     foreign polluters an unfair advantage over the past two 
     decades, has encouraged economic restructuring across rural 
     America that has resulted in manufacturing employment falling 
     by close to thirty percent; and
       Whereas, China has been the major beneficiary of this 
     poorly designed federal trade policy, with the United States 
     losing roughly five million jobs in the last twenty years, 
     and half of those losses are the result of the United States 
     trade deficit with China; and
       Whereas, rewarding United States firms for their 
     environmental performance would bolster domestic 
     manufacturing and generate good paying jobs, particularly in 
     rural areas, and reduce dependence on imports from high 
     emitting producers like Russia and China: Now, therefore, be 
     it
       Resolved, That the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana 
     does hereby memorialize the Congress of the United States to 
     take such actions as are necessary to enact a trade policy 
     that holds high-polluting countries like China and Russia 
     accountable for their pollution and promotes American 
     economic development and the rebuilding of United States 
     supply chains, particularly in rural communities, by 
     rewarding American businesses and workers for their superior 
     environmental performance while penalizing global polluters; 
     and be it further
       Resolved, That a copy of this Resolution shall be 
     transmitted to the secretary of the United States Senate and 
     the clerk of the United States House of Representatives and 
     to each member of the Louisiana delegation to the United 
     States Congress.

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