Sen. Roberts and I are here today with USTR Ambassador Bob Zoellick, and our chief agricultural trade negotiator, Ambassador Al Johnson. We're here to listen to an Iowa pork producer and farmer, Glen Keppy. He's come to Washington to tell Congress why farmers, ranchers, and agricultural producers across America need the Senate to approve Trade Promotion Authority.
About a month ago, Glen sent me a letter about TPA. You can on the poster over here. Two things struck me when I read Glen's letter.
The first was his frustration that a year and a half has gone by since we started talking about TPA, and about all we've done is talk. I know how hard Glen and his sons work. And here he is, taking time away from his farm, to come here and ask the Senate to do what the House of Representatives has already done, and the Finance Committee has already done, and pass trade legislation he and his family need to survive.
Farmers are exporters. Ranchers are exporters. Pork producers like Glen are exporters. They don't have a choice. They either sell overseas what they grow and produce, or they don't make it on the farm. It's that simple.
For the last year and a half, I've been trying to get across to my colleagues how important Trade Promotion Authority is to family farmers. Now that new WTO agricultural trade negotiations are underway ? which wasn't the case 18 months ago ? it's even more important that U.S. agriculture negotiators like Ambassador Johnson are able to shape the agenda for these talks. The only effective way we can do that is with TPA.
The second thing that struck me about Glen's letter is he's not alone. There are a lot of Glen Keppys all over America. There are tens of thousands of farmers, ranchers and agricultural producers of every kind, who depend on foreign markets just as much as he does. Many of them from Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Kansas signed this petition and sent it to Capitol Hill a couple of months ago. Whether we can pass TPA matters a lot to these hard-working men and women. This isn't some theoretical policy concern. Ambassadors Zoellick and Johnson are at the negotiating table now. They are trying hard to advance a very ambitious negotiating agenda. Without TPA, that will be very difficult to do, as Ambassador Johnson will tell you in a few minutes.
Finally, after four months of delay by the Senate Democrat leadership, it looks like we may be about to finally bring TPA to the floor. That's good news. But we all know that passage of TPA has been linked by the Senate Democrat leadership with passage of Trade Adjustment Assistance. As I said last week, unless we can get beyond the partisan, one-size-fits-all health care entitlement the Democrat leadership wants to put in its TPA bill, we may not be able to pass either TPA or TAA.
Other problems might arise before we can finally give the President Trade Promotion Authority. One potential problem is that some may want to undo the bipartisan Finance Committee TPA compromise by bringing up new issues, or offering divisive amendments, before we get a final vote on the floor. That would be bad news for family farmers like Glen Keppy. And it would be bad news for America.
The world looks to America to lead on international trade. When it comes to America's global leadership in trade, politics should stop at the water's edge. And that's true whether we have a Democrat in the White House, or a Republican. Before I introduce Glen, Sen. Roberts has a few words. Then we will hear briefly from Ambassador Zoellick, then Ambassador Johnson.