Pelosi Floor Speech in Support of America’s Workers

Contact: Drew Hammill, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks today on the House floor in support of America's workers. Below are the Leader's remarks:

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding and I commend him for his tremendous, relentless, persistent leadership on behalf of America's workers. They have no better friend than you, Mr. Levin, in your pursuit of bigger paychecks for American workers and doing so without exploiting workers in other countries because, as we know, that only leads to stagnation of wages in America. You have understood that so clearly. You have taught us so well. It is an honor to serve with you, Mr. Levin.

"And so we come to this place with the Senate passage of TPA and the recognition of that there will only be TPA signed – it no longer is connected to TAA – that we have a choice today to choose between voting for TAA or not.

"If it was the intent of the Republicans in the Senate to attach TAA to AGOA in order to bring down both bills, they're very wrong because we reject that. Even though we would have hoped for a better TAA – when we're talking about trade agreements that involve 40 percent of the world's economy, very large with a very small TAA bill – it is woefully small but at least it is there. I would have fought for a bigger bill. We were not given that opportunity.

"But small as it is, tying it to AGOA and perhaps pulling down AGOA, well, we reject that. People said, oh, let's defeat the TAA bill and AGOA will come up another way. We didn't trust that. We don't trust that the Republicans would allow AGOA would come up another way. And so for that reason, from strength knowing that we could defeat TAA, but at the same time bring down AGOA, it was wisely decided that we should just end this phase now – especially since the idea that both bills or no bill no longer existed.

"But this is the end of phase one. And to get to this point, there has been a massive mobilization in our country of people of faith, people who are concerned about the environment, women's groups, of course our friends in organized labor – a massive mobilization for America's working families. And we all stand ready to go to the next phase and that next phase is to keep a very sharp, clear, bright light focused on the provisions of the trade, the TPP.

"Most people really didn't realize that the TPP, the TPA, they're different things. Now they will know, and while I respect the values of the Administration, giving their negotiators all of this power gives them no reason to come back with anything better than a great trade agreement for America's workers and working families. And that is what we are here to fight for.

"We don't believe in trickle-down economics at home, and we do not believe in trickle-down trade policy where it helps people at the top, entities at the top, and then trickles down, maybe, to workers. We can do this in thinking in new and fresh and entrepreneurial ways. What has bothered me about this debate is it's so stale. It's so old in terms of you are either for globalization and recognize it as a reality and you're for participating in it and you are not. How condescending. Of course we know we live in a global economy, and globalization is something that goes well beyond trade. It's about outsourcing and offshoring and all kinds of other ways of taking jobs away from our work force. But it is something that is a possibility that can be done, and that was my aspiration; that we can do something great, something new, something that benefited all workers, lifted up all workers, not exploiting some in some country to the advantage of corporate multinational corporations and stagnation for American workers.

"Everybody says this is better than the status quo. Well, better is a comparative word. If the status quo is not good, better is less bad. We want something best. Good, better, best, never let it rest. So, good is better and better is best. That's what we were told in grade school. But better can also mean less bad. And if this is the standard that we're going with, something that is less bad than the status quo, that's simply not good enough. The possibilities are so great for the world, for the planet.

"So we must recognize the relationship between trade policy and people's lives. We must recognize the relationship, the interconnection between commerce and climate. We cannot enable a trade agreement to go forward that degrades and degrades the environment, especially now that our awareness is so great about the impact of business decisions on the environment that our people live in, the air that our people breathe and the rest.

"We must recognize that we can only accomplish this with greater transparency that this TPA enables us to have. That's done. We're not arguing that. We're saying now for TPP, the American people need, expect and deserve for us to see what the course of this debate is about so that they can weigh in; so that at the end of the day the final product will be something that we can rally around or understand why certain decisions had to go a certain way. But not something that is just put there to say up or down; you either understand we live in a global economy or you do not. That is, you know, again, condescending, not worthy, really of the debate and certainly not worthy of our responsibility to America's working families.

"So I'm excited about the prospect as we move forward. I will vote for this legislation today. I wish we had a better TAA and I certainly do not want to vote against AGOA. And I want to commend Karen Bass, Charlie Rangel who worked on this, created it, really, from the start. It's really important. We should be happy about passing that. This could have been on the President's desk before now if our colleagues in the Senate would have just voted for it and sent it there except that they decided to hijack it by putting this TAA in there and changing this debate. But that's okay. It's what it is.

"We go forward, again, with a bright spotlight on TPP. And if there's any value to what we have been through, which I think has been a great one in terms of mobilization and unifying people about the importance of the financial stability of America's working families is that we are ready with judgement and knowledge to, again, engage in the debate as we go forward. We won't be part of the debate as we go forward because TPA prohibits that. But the American people will want to be engaged in that debate. And we, as their representatives, will have to vote on it at some point.

"Lincoln said, ‘Public sentiment is everything.' The more the public knows about what's happening, I think the better the agreement will be. That is my hope and that is what we will fight for.

"So this is another day, a new day to go forward. I congratulate my colleagues who have worked so hard to get us to where we are, but we have much more to do, much bigger possibilities for the American people, much, much recognition, that it's a whole new world in terms of our understanding of interconnection. Technology aids us. Information helps us. Communication can be our salvation as we share information.

"So again, I congratulate Mr. Levin for his leadership and so many people who worked so hard on all of this, and looking forward to possibly a time where we not only have a unified Democratic Caucus but a unified Congress to come together with one thing in mind, as we approach the 4th of July, remembering ‘E Pluribus Unum', From many, one. We are one country. And I don't think partisan politics, Democrats, Republicans, have anything to do with this debate. It is a debate about advancing America's workers, about bigger paychecks for America's workers as we lift up workers throughout the world, as we protect our environment, as we go into the future. And with that I yield back the balance of my time."

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