[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9441]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               FAST TRACK

  (Mr. NOLAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. NOLAN. Mr. Speaker, Members of the House, the simple truth is 
these trade agreements are destroying our middle class. They are 
causing millions of Americans in mining and manufacturing to lose their 
jobs, millions of others to lose wages and benefits. It now takes two 
or three jobs to earn the same kind of income that one used to be able 
to earn from one job before these trade agreements.
  The fact is, over the last century, we built the strongest middle 
class in the history of this world with living wages and benefits and 
protections for health and safety and the environment; but with the 
emergence of these trade agreements, we are asking Americans to compete 
with countries who have little or none of these benefits. To compete, 
Americans would have to give up on all this progress, give up on the 
American Dream. That is what this is all about.
  I have reviewed the TPP documents and, make no mistake about it, this 
is a race to the bottom. The time has come for Congress to say ``no'' 
to these agreements. The time has come to put an end to them. They have 
been negotiated in secret for the benefit of a few and kept from the 
public for the benefit of the few at the top of our economic ladder.
  The fact is it is destroying the American Dream--the American 
economy, the middle class, and, with that, the American Dream.

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