And to visit the plants that have been displaced. The titans that run these global transnational corporations, they are operatives and the wall street giants that finance them could care less about workers anywhere or the community in which they live. And frankly, these new bosses of Global Production dont care about democracy or the rule of law either. They pay whatever they want and they can pay off as they see fit. Ive seen workers in making may tag washing machines in monterey, mexico. They used to be made in newton, iowa. Those workers dont make enough to buy the washing machines they make. The poverty rate in newton has dramatically increased in the town that paul may tag built. The quality of those machines has gone down too. Who can be proud of what is happening . I visited the homes of those workers from monterey lived and other maquilla factory zones and seen firsthand their impofferished living standards. I stood at a surreal location in mexico witnessed the jobs outsourced in our country at a windshield wiper factory from new york. I met women in honduras and el salvador who earn 10 cents for every tshirt they produce in those sweatshops out there barricaded off behind bashed wire and outsourced from places like the carolinas, the women are being paid 10 cents an hour for every tshirt that comes in here and is sold at 20 each at stores and Shopping Centers around this country. Meanwhile, the booming garment and textile industry of the carolinas like the Furniture Industry too, has all but disappeared and the tens of thousands of jobs that went with them. I visited those massive shutter factories and they reminded me of the auto plant that exists in our industrial region. I tracked furniture jobs to vietnam and seen child laborers perched with their bare feet on the large bowls spraying with lacquer paints breathing in the fumes and chemicals certain to damage their fragile bodies. Let me say in closing as an ohio representative we lost five million jobs alone in Northern Ohio since the passage of nafta which i fout with every ounce of being that i had here in 1993. We lost that fight. 12 votes would have made a difference. And as i speak here today, another global company, hugo boss, a germanowned company, is shutting down a factory in brooklyn ohio, where workers had their pay cut 17 . You can walk into any hugo boss outlet and you can see mens suits selling for 1,200 a piece. What a tragedy. What a tragedy for our country. What our tragedy for workers globally. I will say to my wonderful colleague, mr. Pocan, thank you so much for doing this. In terms of china and others will cover this more completely just in the past year of 2013, the latest complete year of data 319 billion of trade deficit our country assumed with the nation of china just in that year. Just in that year with that one country. We lost an additional 1,590,000 more american jobs just with that one country in one year. The answer to balanced growth is to pay workers a living wage and to respect their worth, not exploit it. The answer to balanced growth is to stop the outsourcing of u. S. Jobs and to pry open the closed markets of the world, starting with japan, china, korea and the answer to balanced growth in fair trade is to stop the hemorrhage of more jobs from this country by defeating any more deals like nafta and all of its offspring and the fast tracking of more jobs that theyre trying to do in the Transpacific Partnership. Its time for america to stand up and for this congress to stand up with the American Workers and communities. I yield back my remaining time to the gentleman and thank him so very much for yielding me some of his precious minutes this evening. Mr. Pocan and thank you, represent itf kaptur for all that youve done. Youve been an articulate spokesperson on behalf of jobs and the effects of these bad trade deals on jobs. Im really glad you brought up the tax tile industry because when we talk about the need to Work Together in this congress, this is an issue where democrats and republicans can absolutely unite. About 12 years ago i was on a delegation, American Council of Young Political leaders, and one of the people on the delegation was a very conservative judge from the state of mississippi. And she and i and the group had met with some sweatshop workers in indonesia to talk about all the mills that have left especially the southern part of the United States, and those jobs are pretty much gone forever. Ive been in business for 27 years since i had hair. Ive had a Small Business. And in that role we screened print tshirts. I watched over the years all the mills that made tshirts in the United States pretty much leave. Its pretty hard to find clothes still made in the u. S. A. Even harder to find them union made in the u. S. A. And this is something that unites people of different political ideologies because we see those jobs leaving. Doesnt matter not a democratic job or a republican job. These bad trade deals too often just cost us jobs and i appreciate you bringing it up and thank you, again for all you do. Next id like to yield some time to someone whos been an extraordinary leader in this area, shes helped to coordinate members of Congress Like no one else, not just on this issue but on many other issues but shes an absolutely tireless advocate for the American Public and to make sure that congress has the proper role when it comes to trade agreements. It is someone who im extremely honored to have as a colleague and a friend. Id like to yield some time to the great representative rosa delauro from the state of connecticut. Ms. Delauro thank you so much to the gentleman from wisconsin. Again, it is resiprycal. Its an honor to serve with you. We are simpatico with regard to this issue and so many others. Im honored to be able to serve with you and to be tied together on this critically important issue. And earlier today when i look at my colleagues who are on the floor here tonight and some have left but who have spoken, we were all at a press conference today, earlier today and i think we can say with one voice that it was one of the broadest advocacy coalitions that we have seen come together. It certainly is true for me in my 24 years in the house. And the advocacy groups, the members of congress coming together to oppose fast track. And it included faith groups, human Rights Groups labor unions, environmental groups Consumer Protection groups and the purpose, as i said, was to oppose the policy known as fast track for trade deal. Under this fast track umbrella, if you will what happens . Members of congress are denied the opportunity to debate and vote in detail on the text of these deals. We cannot have a serious debate nor can we amend the process. Negotiations are going on right now between the United States and 11 other countries. If these negotiations are successful, it will create the largest trade deal in history. Something called the Transpacific Partnership. Yet, the details of this trade agreement remain a secret from the American People from the representatives of the American People in this body. The contours of the deal are being sketched out in secret, as i said but a whos who of wall street firms big pharmaceutical companies, Energy Companies and other corporate interests. They want to ram the agreement through the congress, again, without amendment and with little opportunity for debate. To me that is the very opposite of what we have been sent here to do. Ive always opposed fast track no matter who is in the oval office. Iloppose it again. I will oppose it again. We cannot and must not really sign away our constitutional duties. We must retain the ability to scrutinize trade deals page by page, line by line, word by word. We should do that for all legislation, let alone legislation with such farreaching implications for American Workers. Some of us remember the debate on this floor or going back home on the debate on health care and when our constituents would say to us and our colleagues on the other side of the aisle would say to us, have you read the bill . Have you read the bill . How can you vote on a bill that you have not read . And the t. T. P. Is 1,000 pages. 1,000 pages. We want to read the bill. Thats what we are asking for. Make no mistake, bad trade deals can have grave consequences for our people and it used to be that the working class family became middle class by finding work that paid off to buy a home in a safe neighborhood send their kid to college, leave the generation better off. Next jobs have been sent overseas where labor has been cheap and theyve abused labor rights polluting the environment risking Public Health or manipulating their currencies. A recent g. A. O. Report tells us that of unpunished violence against trade unionists in colombia of Union Suppression in guatemala, of abuses against Foreign Workers in oman, these are all countries that we have a trade deal with. Agreements under which they promised they promised to improve their record. We havent held them accountable on these promises. Im not against free trade. Im in favor of fair trade on a level playing field. Hardworking americans will win nine times out of 10, but the competition must be fair. A recent gallup poll shows that in freen the issues americans most often identified as the biggest problem facing our country was quote, poor government leadership. Today 80 of americans disapprove of the job that this institution is doing. Why . Because far too often we are seen as working not for all americans but for a primpled few. Tax breaks for millionaires privileged few. Tax breaks for millionaires, benefit cuts for the poorest, unprecedented paydays for those at the top, dwindling paychecks for everyone else. The big economic problem today is that jobs that people have do not pay enough to them so they can live on. And fast tracking this trade agreement will exacerbate that problem. For a narrow band of wealthy individuals, big corporations means to invest beyond the borders they do wonders. For the rest of us they spell disaster. They send our jobs overseas, they erode our ability to protect our workers, consumers and the environment. Worst of all, they threaten to saw the legs off the ladder of opportunity that leads to the middle class. Fast tracking these deals would be yet another insult for American Workers. Another sign of how little their political leaders really care about them. Instead of our be a dough indicating our and indicating our responsibility, enough is enough. No more naftastyle trade deals. No more fast track. Let us focus on helping American Workers, not throwing their jobs away. I thank the gentleman from wisconsin for all of his efforts, and its a privilege to work with you on this issue. I yield back. Mr. Pocan again, thank you so much representative delauro, for all your leadership. You are helping to coordinate all of our voices in this battle, and we really appreciate that and all your efforts. I thank you so much. You brought up the Public Opinion of congress, theres no question. If you were actually to explain this process to anyone, regardless of their political ideology, that for the last two years about 600 people in this country, from americas biggest corporations and wall streets biggest banks have been involved in trying to craft this legislation that we havent seen and the American Public hasnt seen and were going to be asked to vote on something that would take away our availability, sight unseen, to limit our ability to debate and to amend any kind of trade agreement thats exactly whats wrong with washington. Thats why people i think is so disgusted with washington and we need to stand up, democrats and republicans together to make sure that we have our ability to have our voices heard, which is the publics voices, through members of congress. So your efforts on fast track, on t. T. P. , on food safety and so many others, thank you so much. Again, i appreciate it. Another one of our leaders of our caucus is here who has been an articulate fighter on so many progressive issues, id like to yield time to my colleague from the state of maryland, representative donna edwards. Ms. Edwards i want to thank you, mr. Ms. Edwards thank you for talking about what fair trade means to american paychecks. I was sitting in my office and listening to my colleagues speak eloquently about the need for congress individual members of congress, representing 725,000 americans to have a voice in a process that is so important to american paychecks. As i sat there, i thought i owed it to my constituents in the 4th Congressional District in mad to come to this floor to stand on their side for their paychecks. As i listen to one of my colleagues, one of the things i heard said was to talk about the job loss in the in the Manufacturing Sector in the clothing, textile sector in the carolinas. I represent a district in maryland, but my family is from North Carolina. A lot of my family members had those goodpaying jobs in the mills, making tshirts and hats and all lost their jobs. And all those jobs went someplace else, but they didnt stay in North Carolina. It was a tragedy. It was a tragedy for my family and tragedy for families all across this country. I remember the nafta debate and so many members of congress i wasnt in congress at the time. Mr. Pocan, you werent in congress at the time. I remember the date. They told us there would be other jobs that would be created. Dont worry about jobs that would be lost. They said the jobs in the Service Sector would grow and they would stay. Almost one of the first things to happen after nafta went into effect, all of those call centers served. Those were Service Sector jobs. And they left along with millions of manufacturing jobs. In my home state of maryland, we lost 70,000 jobs, and were a small state. But we lost those just to nafta. When people tell me now as a member of congress, we want you to just fast track this trade deal, this Transpacific Partnership deal and trust us that the partnership is going to work and all you have to do is rubber stamp the trade deal, i remember, and mr. Pocan, you remember, and thats what requires us to say no way that we cannot give Fast Track Authority over hand it over and say whatever the deal that has been negotiated, we will just take that deal for the American People. While you and i know better. One of the things that has long concerned me is getting wind that our trade representative on behalf of my constituents and your constituents, were negotiating away buy american provisions, negotiating them away, without us having a voice in that conversation. And lets look at those buy america provisions. In 2012, 68 of our colleagues joined us in saying to president obama dont negotiate away the buy america provision. And then just last year, 120 members of congress said, mr. President , dont negotiate away the buy america provision. And so i see that the wind is beneath our sails because the American People understand that when you negotiate away buy america, what you do is negotiate the buying power and jobs of American Workers. You trade what is in effect billions of dollars of american taxpayer buying power for very little buying power coming from the other direction. And so, i am troubled that we have a trade representative that just wants to say, take the deal and run. And those of us who stand in the steps of American Workers, were in their place. Were representing them. We have their voice. We need to have their voice and have to have their back and say no to fast track and say no to t. P. P. And no to provisions that would trade away what we know what the statistics are. The u. S. Procurement market is more than 10 times larger than all the t. P. P. Procurement markets combined. That means we would trade away preferential access to 556 billion in federal Government Procurement for 53 billion in return. We have to say no to this deal. I want to thank you for bringing us together. And its good that were doing this from day one in the United States house of representatives, because what were saying to American Workers is that not only will we stand with you on the first day of the congress and the next day of the congress, but all the way to the end to keep from trading away millions of our jobs. Thank you very much. And i yield back. Mr. Pocan thank you so much. When you talk about the job loss in maryland, we lost nearly 75,000 manufacturing jobs through the naftaw. T. O. Period. When i was a state legislator, it was a buy america law that i passed with a bipartisan vote. And the fact that we are going to give up to have that law and Multinational Corporation can sue any local unit of government so they can contest those laws, i think the average person if they knew that was being discussed, would be opposed to that, much less the other 28 chapters in addition to procurement that are included in this Transpacific Partnership. Thank you for the work you have done on this and making people away of the hidden gems that if we dont have the ability to have a full and fair debate in this house, things could happen. So thank you so much. The progressive caucus i