[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 123 (Tuesday, July 18, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2977-S2979]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 UNITED STATES-TAIWAN INITIATIVE ON 21ST-CENTURY TRADE FIRST AGREEMENT 
                           IMPLEMENTATION ACT

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, in a moment, I am going to put forward a 
unanimous consent request to pass an important bill exercising 
Congress's constitutional authority and approving the first modern 
agreement regulating trade between the United States and Taiwan.
  The bill was cosponsored by all 48 Democrats and Republicans on the 
Ways and Means Committee and was ultimately passed in the House of 
Representatives by a voice vote. It was originally put forward by Ways 
and Means Committee Chair Smith and Ranking Member Neal, as well as 
Senator Crapo and myself as chair and ranking member of the Finance 
Committee.
  Before I make this unanimous consent request on the bipartisan, 
bicameral bill called the United States-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-
Century Trade First Agreement Implementation Act, I want to highlight, 
for just a couple of minutes, why this bill is so important.
  First, the reason behind this proposal, first and foremost, is that 
the U.S. Congress fully supports deepening our trade relationship with 
Taiwan and wants to ensure that the recent agreement covering trade 
facilitation, anti-corruption, and small business is legally sound and 
durable.
  Not only is Taiwan a critical market for U.S. exporters, it is a 
democracy that shares our values and has strong ties with Oregonians 
and Americans across the land.
  Next, this body wants to be clear that trade agreements are within 
the constitutional authority of the Congress. One of the ways the 
Senate demonstrates that is by approving trade agreements like this 
one.
  Finally, the legislation requires greater transparency and 
consultation, as well as public review for future Taiwan trade 
agreements. Our workers, our farmers, and our businesses deserve the 
opportunity to read a trade agreement and understand how it affects 
them before it is signed by a government official and declared the law 
of the land. Trade agreements that affect millions of Americans can't 
be done in the dark. Congress and the American people need to know what 
is in these agreements and how they benefit American interests.
  I look forward to working with the USTR, our point person for trade, 
to negotiate the bigger-ticket items with Taiwan--issues like digital 
trade, labor, environment, and agriculture, as outlined in the 
negotiating mandate. Future agreements need to bulldoze barriers to 
trade for Oregon exporters and American businesses everywhere, 
including by cutting red tape like labeling rules and making sure that 
Taiwan's technical standards don't make it tough for exporters to sell 
their goods. Involving Congress and the public is going to help the 
administration identify issues and hold them accountable for breaking 
down barriers.
  This is a proposal that brings both sides together. The Taiwan trade 
agreement approval bill, as I indicated, passed unanimously in the 
other body. This trade agreement legislation is a can't-miss 
opportunity for the U.S. Senate to support Taiwan, clarify Congress's 
role in trade, and call for more transparency and consultation in 
future agreements.

[[Page S2978]]

  Moreover, it needs to be done now. Taiwan is expecting to pass their 
implementing bill in the next few weeks. It is imperative that we move 
our bill before the administration moves forward with what is called 
``entry into force'' to ensure that the United States gets what it has 
bargained for.
  Let me close by saying that we especially look forward in the future 
to working with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The chairman of 
the committee, Senator Menendez, and I have been talking about ways to 
recognize the intersection between foreign relations and global 
economics. There are a whole host of issues--whether it is supply 
chains, digital trade, the environment, and the like--where we have an 
opportunity to really recognize that, in this century, what we have to 
do is break down barriers. We have to find a way to have a unifying 
strategy for this country, and that means coming together around 
foreign relations and global economics. That is what Chairman Menendez 
and I talked about this evening and in the past, and I look forward to 
working with all of our colleagues on that.
  So, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to 
the immediate consideration of H.R. 4004, which was received from the 
House and is at the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 4004) to approve and implement the Agreement 
     between the American Institute in Taiwan and the Taipei 
     Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United 
     States regarding Trade between the United States of America 
     and Taiwan, and for other purposes.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent that the 
bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to 
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no 
intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill (H.R. 4004) was ordered to a third reading, was read the 
third time, and passed.
  Mr. WYDEN. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.


       Remembering Lieutenant Colonel Virgil Ivan ``Gus'' Grissom

  Mr. YOUNG. Mr. President, Indiana was settled by men and women who 
left the safety of their homes, they headed westward, and they crossed 
the Appalachian Mountains into the wilderness and the unknown. They 
were willing to endure hardship, to risk danger in search of a better 
tomorrow, to clear a path for others to follow. They were pioneers. 
But, long after our State was settled and Indiana's population drifted 
up from the banks of the Ohio River toward Lake Michigan, Hoosiers 
never stopped looking at the frontier. Only, they cast their gaze away 
from the west and toward the sky.
  In the fall of 1959, 15,000 people gathered in the southern Indiana 
town of Mitchell--population 3,500 at the time. Some lined the streets. 
Others sat on rooftops or watched through windows. They hadn't come to 
Mitchell's annual Persimmon Festival for the beauty pageant nor did 
they come for the pudding contest or the classic car run. No. They were 
there to see the convertible at the head of the festival's parade as it 
drove down Mitchell's Main Street. Seated inside that convertible was 
one of their own, a local boy. They knew him from the house on Baker 
Street. Maybe they knew him from Mitchell High or from the First 
Baptist Church. History knows him as the second American to travel to 
space and the first man to go there twice.
  So I am proud to have the privilege to deliver these remarks in front 
of the Presiding Officer, who has also been to space. His name was Lt. 
Col. Virgil Ivan ``Gus'' Grissom. There he is--a great Hoosier, a great 
American.
  I ask all who may be watching to study his portrait--that flat-top 
haircut, the serious expression. That was Gus Grissom. They should look 
at old photos of the White House press events. It is uncanny. He is the 
odd astronaut out, the one who looks like he would rather not be there. 
You see, the images don't lie. He was taciturn, tough-minded, and hard-
driving.
  NASA's head physician described him as ``confident but not 
conceited.'' He was a ``stern competitor but a good teammate, a frank 
but carefree speaker.''
  He had little use for publicity or even the press. He only went to 
White House events because Betty, his wife, and their boys wanted to. 
Gus Grissom wasn't a celebrity; he was a pilot and an engineer. He was 
more comfortable racing fellow Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard in his 
souped-up Corvette around Cape Kennedy. He was a regular guy. But the 
race that Gus Grissom truly cared about was the one to the stars. He 
was determined--determined--to beat Russia there.
  ``I think we ought to declare an out-and-out race with the Russians 
to put the first man in space,'' Grissom once stated.
  You see, this Hoosier didn't mince words. He saw the space race as an 
important global competition between the United States and the Soviet 
Union, between freedom and communism. And the prize was more than just 
a flag that was planted on the Moon. It meant prestige and pride, yes, 
but also technological superiority and the national security and 
economic benefits that went with it. America won that race in part 
because of Gus Grissom, and our Nation reaped incredible benefits 
because of his sacrifice.
  On July 21, 1961--almost 2 years after he was at the center of the 
Persimmon Festival in Mitchell--Grissom splashed down in the Atlantic 
Ocean, 260 nautical miles south of Cape Canaveral. He had just ridden 
the Mercury-Redstone 4 above the Earth and back down. Appropriately, 
Grissom nicknamed the ship Liberty Bell 7--a tribute, of course, to the 
bell that rang after the reading of the Declaration of Independence in 
1776.
  Regardless of what you have read in novels or seen in movies, 
Grissom's flight was flawless. The vessel sank after its hatch blew--
the result of a poor design and electrostatic discharge, not astronaut 
error.
  Four years later, on March 23, 1965, friends and former classmates 
gathered at the First Baptist Church back in Mitchell. Nearly every 
business installed a television so their customers and employees could 
watch Grissom return to space. This was a different journey, though. 
The Mercury ships boosted astronauts into space and retro-rocketed them 
back to Earth. This new craft, Gemini, gave them a degree of control 
and added maneuverability--technological leaps that anticipated manned 
flights to the Moon.
  Grissom, along with pilot John Young, did not only skillfully guide 
Gemini 3 as it orbited the Earth three times, he virtually designed the 
ship. Stung by the ``hatch crap'' on Liberty Bell 7, as he called it, 
Grissom securitized and directed the assembly of the new spacecraft. 
Their construction so closely followed his vision that other astronauts 
nicknamed the Gemini the ``Gusmobile.'' The cockpit and seat were even 
configured to his 5'7'' frame.
  Grissom was next given command of the Apollo program's first mission, 
with its goal of realizing President Kennedy's charge of landing a man 
on the Moon before the end of the 1960s. When the Apollo Lunar Module 
landed at Tranquility Base in 1969, Grissom was not aboard. He had 
perished 2 years prior in a launch pad fire aboard Apollo 1 during 
testing. The tragedy, though, inspired NASA to improve the construction 
and, ultimately, the safety of the Apollo crafts, leading to the Moon 
landing.
  Grissom said:

       The conquest of space is worth the risk of human life.

  The race to the stars ended in America's favor because he gave his.
  Now, Grissom may not have been aboard Apollo 11 when it reached the 
Moon, but it never would have gotten there without him.
  At the onset of that journey and the most daunting journeys Americans 
have embarked on, there has been skepticism, and there have been 
questions of purpose and value. It never stopped the pioneers, the 
doers and dreamers, and Americans like Gus Grissom from making the 
voyage and making our country better.
  Back in the fall of 1959, during the Persimmon Festival, Mayor Roy 
Ira handed Grissom a plaque and gave him a simple tribute:

       Mitchell is proud of Grissom. I urge our youth to take note 
     of Virgil's example.


[[Page S2979]]


  Six decades later, we are still proud of him, and we should all still 
follow his example and always press on toward the next frontier, 
wherever it may be.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. KELLY. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call 
be rescinded.

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