[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11048]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP

  (Mr. ELLISON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. ELLISON. Madam Speaker, now is not the time for the Trans-Pacific 
Partnership or fast track legislation. Five years into our economic 
recovery, high unemployment and stagnant incomes continue to keep 
consumer spending down. American families still cannot make ends meet. 
For too many people, that is the reality. Meanwhile, we are being asked 
to pass fast track legislation for TPP, and I think it is a threat to 
American jobs.
  How do we know? We have already tried this 20 years ago when we 
passed NAFTA. Similar to TPP, NAFTA promised to create jobs, 200,000 
Americans jobs every year, but they didn't materialize. Instead, the 
United States lost more than a million jobs. In Minnesota, more than 
13,000 workers were displaced.
  We don't want to see this happen again. It is time to pass a trade 
bill that lifts labor standards around the world, not encourages a race 
to the bottom. We cannot afford to offshore any more of our jobs. Let's 
pass a good trade bill.

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