[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 4368-4369]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                PROGRAM

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the Senate will next convene on Monday, 
March 22. No rollcall votes will occur that day. However, the Senate 
will resume consideration of the Jumpstart JOBS bill, also known as 
FSC/ETI. We

[[Page 4369]]

have made some progress on the bill. We interrupted the bill when we 
took up the budget bill this week.
  Given the March 1 deadline on the FSC/ETI bill, which we have passed, 
and the implementation of sanctions, because that deadline has passed, 
I am concerned about our ability to pass this bill in a timely way. We 
must address this and it will be the first order of business when we 
return.
  It is clear that extraneous amendments may be offered and that will 
further complicate our ability to finish this bill in a timely and 
orderly way. We have already spent several days on the bill. I 
encourage my colleagues to stay focused. Let's address the bill in an 
appropriate way to complete action.
  Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Baucus are still hoping to 
pursue an agreement to finish the bill, although I must put everyone on 
notice that it may be necessary to file cloture to bring this important 
legislation to a close.
  I should comment on the bill itself because people say, why the 
focus? Why the urgency? I mentioned the March 1 deadline--we are past 
the March 1 deadline--the renewed sanctions that are impacting trade 
right now.
  The bill brings our trade laws and our trade into compliance with our 
trade agreements. Right now they are out of compliance. People agree 
they are out of compliance.
  In addition, the bill provides badly needed reforms to further 
stimulate manufacturing growth. It is a manufacturing bill. On this 
floor every day we are talking jobs, manufacturing jobs and loss of 
jobs, and this bill hits directly at the heart of improving the 
environment for manufacturing in this country.
  We all know the recession hit the manufacturing sector hard, probably 
the hardest of any other sector. Manufacturing costs in the U.S. have 
been going up. They are getting higher and higher, where they have not 
gone up elsewhere in the world.
  We compete in a global economy. In my home State of Tennessee, 
exports have risen 26 percent since 1997, and exports support 232,000 
jobs in Tennessee, and that is about 10 percent of our overall 
workforce in Tennessee.
  Some people have suggested we close our borders to trade. To me, and 
I think to most people, that is a declaration of defeat. We are the 
most creative society in the world. We are the most innovative society 
in the world today. Workers in the United States lead productivity when 
compared to all other workers in the world. If we are allowed to 
compete on a level playing field, U.S. manufacturers can and will 
compete anywhere in the world, but U.S. manufacturers currently have 
this additional burden of unnecessary cost.
  The WTO also approved the European Union sanctions against the United 
States. As I mentioned, that began on March 1. That is a 5-percent 
tariff, a 5-percent tax, a 5-percent sanction on a whole variety of 
U.S. goods. Again, that makes us less competitive. Thus, we need to act 
and we need to act now. We do not need a lot of nongermane, extraneous 
amendments applied to this bill. Let's stay focused on this bill 
itself.
  It has gone up 5 percent. These tariffs will increase by 1 percent a 
month to a high of 17 percent next year if we do not act and repeal 
these export subsidies. That, again, is another cost to U.S. 
manufacturing.
  There are pending amendments, and others may be offered that day, and 
therefore Members are expected to come to the floor for debate 
throughout the day. The next vote will occur on Tuesday. As always, we 
will notify Members when we lock in a time certain for that rollcall 
vote.
  I do thank everyone one last time for their hard work and their long 
hours this week. I thank the pages. They have done a tremendous job for 
us, from early in the morning until late at night; to the police, to 
all the clerks, again from hours before we start until well after we 
complete our business on the floor; and to all those who are behind the 
scenes and keep this wonderful building and institution functioning. We 
do not have the opportunity to thank them very much, and I hope in 
telling that story of the importance of thank-yous, I do say thank-you 
to all the people who provide the infrastructure that allows us to 
carry out real democracy at its best.

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