[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 1798]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              CUSTOMS BILL

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the Customs bill is another in a series of 
missed opportunities and half-measures that have characterized this 
Congress. The legislation we are going to vote on today, the conference 
report on Customs, misses the opportunity to take strong action against 
currency manipulation. The bill we sent out of here had strong currency 
manipulation language in it; it is not there anymore.
  It throws up unnecessary hurdles to agreements on climate change. It 
basically says that any agreements the United States makes cannot take 
climate into consideration--on any of those agreements.
  No one that I know of opposes the legislation that is stuck inside 
this Customs conference report dealing with taxation on the Internet. 
We all support that. But the sad part about this is the manipulation to 
get it in this bill. It did not start in either House; it was just 
airdropped into the conference report. The reason it was done that way 
is everyone knew that if this matter was brought up--the Internet Tax 
Fairness Act--as part of it, we always had marketplace fairness. That 
was part of the deal. They went together. But the manipulation took 
place.
  This most important piece of legislation dealing with helping 
States--States are struggling. It does not matter which States they 
are, they are struggling. What we have are the brick-and-mortar places 
that can't compete with online merchandising. Someone who has a brick-
and-mortar store--someone will walk in, see something they like, and 
then they will walk out, go to the computer, and buy it online. They 
pay no taxes. That is unfair to the brick-and-mortar stores and small 
businesses across America. It would help States remarkably if people 
who buy on the Internet would have to pay the same taxes as someone who 
buys in a brick-and-mortar store.
  But in an effort to protect a number of Senators--one in particular--
this matter was stuck in this bill. We have just a few States that 
don't have a sales tax. One of those Senators is up for reelection. She 
has a very tough election, and anyone who understands politics a little 
bit understands that this was done as a result of trying to protect 
her.
  But as Senator Durbin, the person who has pushed this marketplace 
fairness more than anyone else--except perhaps for Senator Enzi and 
Lamar Alexander--knows, what has been done is unfair. But they have 
been told this matter will be brought up before the end of the year. So 
I don't know what solace that should give the Senator who is worried 
about the marketplace fairness passing because it would seem to me that 
the vote we had here earlier was 69 votes, and it will pass again. The 
Speaker has told me that he is going to bring up marketplace fairness 
on the House side. So we are going to vote on it before the end of the 
year. It is going to be the law anyway.
  It is too bad small businesses have to wait again for 6 months or 8 
months to get this done.
  The Customs bill does not do enough to enforce our trade agreements 
or protect American workers, and I will oppose it.

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