Senate Proceeding on Apr 27th, 2009 :: 4:19:25 to 4:33:35
Total video length: 4 hours 33 minutes Stream Tools: Stream Overview | Edit Time

Note: MetaVid video transcripts may contain inaccuracies, help us build a more perfect archive

Views:70 Duration: 0:14:10 Discussion

Previous speech:

4:19:19 to 4:19:40( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: expressions of approval and disapproval are not permitted. mr. brown: madam president? the presiding officer: the sena mr. brown: i actually approve of the gentleman's comments, madam president. in this case i want to express that

4:19:25 to 4:33:35( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Sherrod Brown

4:19:41 to 4:20:01( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: thank you. madam president, in the last few weeks there's been a good bit of discussion in the media and in washington, not much around the kwupbt but -- country but in the media and washington about continuing the bush trade policy by promoting the trade pacts he gotiated before leaving office. we know president bush pushed

4:20:02 to 4:20:23( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: the central american free agreement through the congress afr his father clinton pushed through the north america free trade agreement. and we know that continuing the bush trade policy would be a mistake. look what's happened in states like ohio, new hampshire. look all over this country, you can see not simply the

4:20:24 to 4:20:45( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: incredible job loss the middle-class families have suffered, not just their own job loss, what that means to a neighborhood, what that means to a community, what it means to police and fire protection and the layoffs of city workers and the general malaise that surrounds that in a community with also meant years of stagnant wages. we've seen since this huge loss

4:20:46 to 4:21:06( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: of manufacturing jobs, since this exploding of our trade deficit, we've seen years of stagnant wages, where most of america has, simply hasn't gotten a pay raise in real dollars. a combination of the current recession and manufacturing job loss is the result of wrongheaded trade policies have taken their toll on community after community in ohio.

4:21:07 to 4:21:29( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: from the north american free trade agreement to the central american free trade agreement, from relations with china to failing to enforce our trade law, our nation's trade policy in the last decade, has betrayed america's middle class. last year alone our trade defici

4:21:30 to 4:21:50( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: we have every day -- yesterday, saturday, friday, tomorrow, the next day, all we have a trade deficit of $2 billion. $2 billion trade if you spent $1 every second of every minute of every hour of every day, it would take you 63 years to spend $2 billion. you spend a dollar of every

4:21:51 to 4:22:11( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: second of every minute of every hour of you 63 billion. we have a $2 billion trade deficit every day. the $1 billion trade deficit translates into some 1,000 jobs, gained or lost.

4:22:12 to 4:22:33( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: $1 billion trade surplus means manufacturing and selling a billion more out of the country than you're importing. that's a $13,000 job gain. $1 billion deficit is the reverse. it's a 13,000 job loss. that's according to president bush the first. you can just do the math. a $700 billion trade deficit is a lot of lost jobs.

4:22:34 to 4:22:54( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: this is a net trade deficit. this is imports exports minu imports. our trade deficit has resulted in our nation not only importing goods and services and that trade deficit and seeing the kinds of numbers of lost jobs, it's also importing dangerous safety standards of

4:22:55 to 4:23:16( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: trading partners. in toledo, ohio, several patients died after taking contaminated heparin to treat their heart condition. the manufacturing of heparin -- the manufacturers of heparin outsourced the making of the drug and as a result didn't know where the contaminated ingredients came from. it also happened in vitamins. it's happened in other pharmaceuticals.

4:23:17 to 4:23:37( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: it happened in dog food where the manufacturers or in the case of the dog food or the manufacturer of the pharmaceuticals have -- the companies have moved offshore, have bought ingredients, outsourced these ingredients and bought them from all kinds of

4:23:38 to 4:23:58( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: subcontractors whom they generally can't trace very well and these contaminated ingredients have come back into the united states and caused significant damage sometimes to the point of death for far too many americans. the same with toys. professor jeffrey widenhammer, professor at a university not

4:23:59 to 4:24:19( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: far from where i grew up in ohio took his freshman chemistry class and wen very inexpensive toys. at easter time and c i'm sorry at halloween and christmas last year. then tested these toys for paint, lead-based paint. and found a significant number of them had far too high a levels, dangerously high levels

4:24:20 to 4:24:40( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: for children. these are american company but the production was outsourced to china. subcontracted with all kinds of small chinese operations and at the same time pushed them every year to cut costs. so what happens? these companies use the cheapest, the paint, which happened to be

4:24:41 to 4:25:02( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: lead-based paint, which makes -- which is put on these products, then makes its way back into the united states and shows up in the homes of people in avon lake and other parts of ohio. whether is patients in toledo, whether using these toys i sreul or whether it's workers

4:25:03 to 4:25:24( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: who have lost their jobs because of trade agreements, it's clear our trade direction is not working. it's clear that the trade agenda given us by the bush administration, inherited by the bush administration should not be continued. make no mistake about it, madam president, i want trade. i want more of it. i just want it under a different set of rules. that's why i'll be asking the government accountability office to conduct a comprehensive study

4:25:25 to 4:25:45( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: on our current trade agreements, a g.a.o. report on trade would provide nonideological, nonpartisan analysis of what is working and in our trade policy. it's an important step towards redirecting u.s. trade policy that will provide critical solutions for our nation's recovery strategy. the basic premise of change --

4:25:46 to 4:26:06( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: of redirecting u.s. trade policy is that we must see evidence that our tra model is before we pass trade agreements. why should we pass a trade agreement negotiated by the bush administration with panama or with colombia or with south korea when that trade model is -- those tradegreements are based on the nafta cafta trade

4:26:07 to 4:26:28( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: model, the same kind of trade agreement that surely has cost us jobs. and if you don't believe it's cost us jobs, first you're not looking at the statistics. even if let's have that dispassionate analysis, nonideological, nonpartisan, fair-minded analysis of nafta, of cafta, with our trade policy with china

4:26:29 to 4:26:49( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: before we pass further trade agreements. at the same time during the last eight years the bush administration never accepted a 301 petition to help us with trade enforcement, including a petion for an investigationf chinese currency practices and a petion of chinese workers' rights or the chinese slave labor or using child labor. the bush administration would not even examine it.

4:26:50 to 4:27:10( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: they dismissed these 301 petions in a matter in one case in less than a day. the bush administration also never acted on when the international trade commission found injury. the nonenforcement has left struggling companies in my state, small manufacturing companies in new hampshire. the presiding officer's state. unable to compete against unfair

4:27:11 to 4:27:31( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: trade practices. now, madam president, i'm encouraged by administration's emphasis on trade enforcement. i believe -- and i believe that -- and i want to see congress work with the president to ensure that trade enforcement is a government-wide practice. president obama the authority to

4:27:32 to 4:27:52( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: negotiate better trade deals, but i don't believe we give president obama or any president a blank check on these trade agreements. congress needs a stronger role in the process. that means congress must review, renegotiate, revitalize trade. that's why congress should the trade reform accountability development and employment act that i introduced last congress

4:27:53 to 4:28:14( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: and plan to introduce soon in this congress. the trade act is forward-looking. it's a protrade piece of legislation that requires a review of existing trade agreements and then provides a process to renegotiatexisting trade agreements when necessary. it outlines principles on labor standards, on the environment, on investment, on food

4:28:15 to 4:28:36( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: on consumer product safety like children's toys to be included in future trade agreements, something that's never been included, any consequential provisions, any of them have ever been included in -- none of them have been included in any trade agreements on labor, investment, envir safety, on consumer product safety.

4:28:37 to 4:28:58( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: with any delegation of authority to negotiate better trade deals congress must ensure negotiating objectives are binding and that there is a congressional vote on a trade agreement before it is signed by the president. none of this from o high, the president cuts all special interest deals that we saw. we saw that in the bush years and frankly we saw it too often in the clinton years, the first

4:28:59 to 4:29:19( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: bush, and the reagan years also. the trade negotiators would cut their special interest deals, send the agreement to congress. congress had to vote after the president had signed on either up or down. reasserting congressional authority must also ensure congress's public policy prerogatives are respected by international trade ornizations like the world trade organization.

4:29:20 to 4:29:40( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: we must not find our public policy subject to corporate rights of action at the w.t.o. or nafta that outweighs the government's responsibility to preserve the what's happened in these cases is the corpora been respected but not rights of workers, not rights to protect -- not rules to protect the environment or rules to

4:29:41 to 4:30:03( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: protect consumer safety and food safety. a that doesn't give countries policy space risks the very legitimacy of global institutions. countries should have their sovereignty. if canada wants to environmental rule, if wants to pass a strong food safety law, who are we in a worldrade body, or who are we

4:30:04 to 4:30:24( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: as another government or who is someone as a corporation to tell ose countries they can't pass that strong environmental law, they can't pass that food safety law? i recog strategy we can all agree that the current trade model has not been working. when we trade the process for writing trade deals, we can make

4:30:25 to 4:30:45( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: trade deals work for people in our country and the -- and the people living in the countries where our trading partners reside. and you've seen in too many cases, madam president, that -- that the trade agreements have -- you've seen demonstratis in central america by people against these trade agreements understanding that these trade agreements have so often

4:30:46 to 4:31:07( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: overridden consumer protection rules in their country. you've seen people in our country complain of the trade agreements because workers lose their jobs, because safe drinking water connected under the trade agreements. it is time that the trade agreements be written for our communities, our workers, for our small businesses. they have not in t this is our chance to set out in a new direction on trade.

4:31:08 to 4:31:27( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: thank i suggest the absence of a the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

4:31:48 to 4:32:09( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: quorum call: mr. brown: madam president? the pres senator from ohio. mr. brown: thank you, madam president. i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: i ask unanimous consent that at noon tuesday, april 28, the senate return to legislative session to resume consideration of s. 386, upon passage of the bill return to executive session to

4:32:10 to 4:32:30( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: resume consideration of the he is billus -- sebilus nomination. objection. mr. brown: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to 1626 received from the house. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 1626, an act to make technical amendments to laws containg time periods affectin

4:32:31 to 4:32:51( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure at this time? without objection. mr. brown:adam president, i ask unanimous consent that the bill be read three times and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table witho intervening action or debate and any statements related to the bill be placed in the record at appropriate place as if read. objection. mr. brown: madam ask unanimous consent that when

4:32:52 to 4:33:14( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: the senate completes its business today it adjourn until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow, tuesday, and pledge, journal of proceedings be approved to date, morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be day and the senate proceed to executive session under the previous order. further, i ask that the senate

4:33:15 to 4:33:35( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: recess from 12:30 tomorrow until 2:15 for the luncheons. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: the senate will the nomination for kathleen sebelius. senators should be prepared for a vote on passage of s. 386, the fraud enforcement recovery act