[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 19 (Monday, May 14, 2001)]
[Pages 731-732]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Letter to Congressional Leaders Transmitting an Outline of the 2001 
Legislative Agenda for International Trade

May 10, 2001

Dear __________ :

    I am pleased to provide you with an outline of my 2001 legislative 
agenda for international trade. I look forward to working closely with 
you to enact it this year.
    The trade agenda reflects my strong commitment to open markets 
around the world for the benefit of American workers, farmers, and 
businesses. I also am committed to open markets to provide lower prices 
and greater choices for U.S. consumers and industries. Open trade fuels 
the engine of economic growth that creates new jobs and new income in 
the United States and around the world.
    We have no time to waste in reasserting America's leadership on 
trade. The President has not had trade negotiating authority since it 
expired in 1994. We can no longer afford to sit still while our trading 
partners move ahead without us.
    For that reason, I have placed the enactment of U.S. Trade Promotion 
Authority at the top of my trade legislative agenda. U.S. Trade 
Promotion Authority tells the world that the President and the Congress 
are united at the negotiating table in seeking to strike the best 
possible deals for our country. I am committed to working with the 
Congress, on a bipartisan basis, to rebuild the consensus needed to 
allow America to reassert its leadership in the trade arena. I hope the 
enclosed framework for U.S. Trade Promotion Authority will help us 
redouble our efforts to secure the benefits of expanded trade for the 
American people.
    I hope you also will join me in moving the other important 
components of my trade legislative agenda to enactment this session as 
well.
     Sincerely,
                                                George W. Bush

[[Page 732]]

Note: Identical letters were sent to J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the 
House of Representatives; Richard A. Gephardt, House minority leader; 
Trent Lott, Senate majority leader; Thomas A. Daschle, Senate minority 
leader; Richard G. Lugar, chairman, and Tom Harkin, ranking member, 
Senate Committee on Agriculture; Charles E. Grassley, chairman, and Max 
Baucus, ranking member, Senate Committee on Finance; Orrin G. Hatch, 
chairman, Senate Committee on the Judiciary; Larry Combest, chairman, 
and Charles W. Stenholm, ranking member, House Committee on Agriculture, 
Nutrition, and Forestry; Philip M. Crane, chairman, and Sander M. Levin, 
ranking member, House Subcommittee on Trade; and William M. Thomas, 
chairman, and Charles B. Rangel, ranking member, House Committee on Ways 
and Means.