Republican Rep. Paul Ryan Urges Congress to Pass Obama-Backed Trade Bill
Rep. Paul Ryan is calling on fellow Republicans in Congress to pass trade legislation backed by the Obama Administration that would help American companies conduct business overseas.
In the weekly Republican address, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman stated that granting trade agreements in Europe at the Pacific would lead to U.S job creation and economic growth.
"You see, 96 percent of the world's consumers -- they don't live in the United States; they live in other countries. We have to make more things in America and sell them overseas," said Ryan, one of the top Republican leaders in the House, reports The Hill.
"We let other countries sell their products here. But they've put up trade barriers that make it hard to sell our products over there."
In the speech, Ryan also talked about "trade promotion authority," or TPA, which is legislation that would authorize the president to negotiate trade deals on behalf of Congress. Once the legislation is finalized, lawmakers would vote on whether to accept the trade deal or not. However, they would not be permitted to make changes to the legislation.
This "puts Congress the driver's seat" because they can reject trade agreements they disapprove of, said Ryan, the 2012 Republican vice presidential candidate.
"Congress gets the final say. If you meet all of these requirements, we will give the agreement an up-or-down vote," he added.
Earlier this week, the Ways and Means Committee passed controversial legislation that would give President Obama more authority to negotiate trade deals with other countries. The approval of the "fast-track" trade legislation on Thursday cleared a major hurdle for the Obama Administration, which is looking to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP.)
However, a bitter debate took place before it passed when Rep. Sander Levin, the panel's top Democrat, presented an alternative version of fast track, reports The Wall Street Journal. Levin's bill adds stronger labor safeguards, protections for the auto industry and binding rules to prevent currency manipulation in TPP.
In response, Ryan used a little-known House rule to block the committee from holding a vote on Levin's bill.
Now, the House is expected to hold a vote on the bill in the next several weeks.
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