Paul Ryan

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how many speakers are left on the other side?

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sessions), the distinguished chairman of the House Rules Committee, the coauthor of the TPA bill.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Given that I have the right to close, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I make two points. This is about bringing transparency and accountability to government. We are not considering a trade agreement today. We are considering a process by which we consider trade agreements. That is what trade promotion authority is. In this process, we are saying you have got to let Members of Congress see the negotiating text, you have got to let the country see a trade agreement once an agreement is reached, and you have got to follow Congress' rules, Congress' direction. That is what this does to make sure that the executive branch follows the track laid out by the legislative branch. The bigger point is this: this is about jobs; it is about income, take-home pay, American leadership. Mr. Speaker, the world is watching us right now. They are watching this vote. Since TPA lapsed in 2007, the rest of the world kept going. While America stood still on trade, the rest of the world created 100 trade agreements, negotiated and passed 100 trade agreements, to which the United States was a party to zero of them. What this means is other countries are going around the world getting better agreements between other countries, lower tariffs, lower nontariff barriers, so their trade grows, and as a result the barriers against American products go higher. Ninety-five percent of the world's consumers don't live here; they live in other countries. If we want good jobs and good wages, we need to make and grow more things in America and sell them overseas. What is happening is, every single day we do nothing to open these markets up, we lose, and the rest of the world gets those jobs. The last point is a point that I think people don't appreciate as well. We are in the dawn of the 21st century with enormous issues: cyber threats, intellectual property, you name it. The rule book on how the global economy works is being written right now. The only way for us to be in the game to write that rule book is through trade agreements: get other countries to agree to our rules, get other countries to agree to our standards, open their markets to our products. That is how we write the rules for the global economy. That is how America leads. A ``no'' vote is to say America can't even try. A ``yes'' vote is to say more transparency, more accountability. Then Congress decides, and we are giving America a chance to stay in the leading position in the world. That is why I argue for a ``yes,'' ``yes,'' ``yes'' vote. I want to thank everyone on the staff of the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee. Our staff director, Angela Ellard, Geoff Antell, Stephen Claeys, Nasim, Neena Shenai, Casey Higgins, Paul Guaglianone. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I simply want to thank the incredible hard work of our staff. In particular, I would like to single out Angela Ellard, our chief trade counsel and staff director of the Ways and Means trade staff; Stephen Claeys, our trade counsel; Geoffrey Antell, our trade counsel; Neena Shenai, our trade counsel; Nasim Deylami, our trade counsel; Casey Higgins, our trade counsel; and Paul Guaglianone, our legislative assistant. If it weren't for the late nights, hard work of our hard-working, dedicated staff that go all too often unrecognized around here, this effort would not have been possible. I just want to say from the bottom of my heart how appreciative I am for their dedication and hard work.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the order of the House of June 10, 2015, as modified by the order of the House of today, I call up the bill (H.R. 1295) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to improve the process for making determinations with respect to whether organizations are exempt from taxation under section 501(c)(4) of such Code, with the Senate amendments thereto, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. The bills came over from the other body together--both policies, TAA and TPA, in the same bill; that is why these are not separate bills, but they are separate votes. As the gentleman knows from his years of experience here, we can always choose to divide the question on a particular bill. We have chosen to divide the question on that forthcoming bill between TPA and TAA. The issue before us right here is not just preferences, which is important for all the reasons we specified, but it also fixes the pay- for problem that, on both sides of the aisle, Members had concerns with. The bill coming over from the Senate has both issues together. We are simply dividing the question and having votes on each policy separately.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion at the desk.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Emmer), one of our newer Members who has taken a particular interest in the issue of trade. It matters greatly to the jobs in his district in Minnesota.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 1295, the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015, currently under consideration.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in favor of the Trade Preferences Extension Act. This bill will strengthen America by promoting free enterprise all around the world. First, we extend the African Growth and Opportunity Act for 10 years. AGOA allows African countries to sell their goods in America duty free. This program is a very essential program. It strengthens ties between our countries because when America grows, they grow too. I also want to thank Congressman Rangel for his work on this. He is the champion of AGOA. He is one of the primary authors of AGOA, and he is the person who has done so much work throughout his career--having been chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, a leader in the committee--to help forge better ties between the nations of Africa and our country and to help the rising tide lift all of the boats, so I want to thank him for his leadership on this issue. Second, we renew the Generalized System of Preferences through December 2017. GSP lowers duties on thousands of products around the developing world. We make a few changes in the bill, and I want to articulate those changes. We make eligible for GSP things like purses, briefcases, and backpacks, but only after they receive extensive review and only if they are found to be nonimport sensitive. This is a trade bill, so there are lots of things like this in trade bills. The purpose of all of this is to give American consumers access to better products at better prices, to help grow the economies of America and the countries we are trading with in the developing world. We create a new tariff line for recreational performance outerwear, outerwear that is not made here, but that we buy that is needlessly more expensive for consumers. We lower duties on things like hiking and running shoes. I also want to thank Congressman Blumenauer and Congressman Reichert for their work on performance outerwear and footwear. I also want to thank Congressman Smith and Congressman Crenshaw from Florida for their work on luggage. All of these programs have strong bipartisan support and say to the developing world: free enterprise, free enterprise is the way to go. That is the key to success. That is the key to upward mobility. Third, we extend the HOPE and the HELP programs for products in Haiti for 10 years. These programs build up Haiti through trade and investment. That is the best kind of foreign aid and support you can have: more economic growth, more trade, more investment. They can create more opportunity and bring our countries closer together. That is why it is critical that we continue these programs. Finally, I would like to say a word about the offsets in this bill. This bill will eliminate the Medicare sequester extension that was in the TAA bill, and in exchange it will set up stronger tax compliance laws. We have reached a bipartisan compromise here. This fixes the concerns that Members on both sides of the aisle, particularly on the Republican side, the Doctors Caucus as we call it, had about the Medicare sequester, and it removes the Medicare sequester. These are commonsense programs that are fully paid for. I urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support the legislation. It passed with a huge bipartisan margin over in the Senate, and I hope and expect that it will do so, as well, here. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I will just add a couple responses before I yield to the chairman of the Trade Subcommittee. I appreciate the gentleman's kind words. This is a bipartisan bill, and there is a time sensitivity here. It is very important, particularly for African nations in AGOA, that this gets done very quickly so that the proper signals are sent to the investors, to the factories, to the employers so that people can keep their jobs. That is one of the many reasons why we wanted to honor the commitment with the gentlewoman from California, with the gentleman from New York, to keep this distinct and separate and to get it moving through. So it is our intention that this gets moved through here, and then it is off and done. I just want to thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle for their indulgence. This is one of those kind of rare, these days, moments of bipartisan support where this is good, and this is something that we should all be pleased that we are seeing done. It elevates our principles. It forges our ties with other countries. And in the time sensitive nature of this, I am glad that we could come together and get this done like we are. I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Tiberi), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Trade of the Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Smith), a distinguished Member of the Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Crenshaw), chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that brought this matter of luggage to our attention in the first place.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Could you rephrase the question? I didn't catch it all.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Boustany), a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee and the chairman of the Human Resources Subcommittee.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I want to thank Mr. Meeks, the gentleman who just left. He has been a great leader on this issue, on trade. Let me explain to those who are watching who aren't steeped in the intricacies of the trade law: what this bill is, the bill with respect to Haiti, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, GSP, it is trade, not aid. It is combining the need in America for high-quality, lower-cost goods that are not made in America with the need for economic growth and jobs in developing countries. It is a win-win. Take Africa, for example. People are getting opportunity. People are getting jobs. People are getting out of poverty, and they are making products that Americans need, that Americans don't make right here. And we are getting high-quality, lower-priced products as a result of it. So that means, for the hard-working taxpayer in Wisconsin, for the hard-working taxpayer in New York and throughout America, they are stretching their dollar more. That means their paycheck goes farther. That means that they are buying shoes for their kids or blankets at home or towels, or luggage. They can buy more of it. It doesn't cost as much. That means their take-home pay can go to that and even more things because it gives them more take-home pay. That is why it is good for us. And why it is good for people in the developing world is it is helping them build an economy. It is helping them attract manufacturers and exporters who create jobs and opportunity. So, as a component of our foreign policy, it is so important. You have heard it a million times: we believe in trade, not aid. You teach a man how to fish instead of feeding him a fish. We all know the parables we can get into. That is what this is. This says, let's work together to grow your economy, to be independent, to be self-sufficient, to help people get more opportunity to pull themselves out of poverty. That is in the interest of the human person involved, but it is also in the interest of our countries, so that we can help the developing world get into the First World, so that we can help the developing world raise their living standards. And by the way, just from a brass tacks, material standpoint, having the developing world grow, having people enter the middle class in other countries means more customers for our products. It means more trade for us. But, from an international standpoint, from a foreign policy standpoint, it means these countries are more secure. They are more safe. They are more prosperous. And they enter the world from a developing nation to the developed world. That is good for everybody. That is good for all. That is why this is one of the more important components of our foreign policy as a country and our economic policy, in general. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Curbelo).

Mr RYAN of Wisconsin

Mr RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for the purposes of a colloquy.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Reclaiming my time, first, I wanted to just note for the record that the footwear provision lowers duty on outdoor activity shoes, athletic footwear, such as gym shoes, just to make sure we can clarify that. I thank the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) and also the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Reichert), who is involved in this issue, for their leadership on recreational performance outerwear and footwear. The provisions we included in this bill will lower costs for American consumers. It will expand opportunities for U.S. businesses in these key product areas. I share both your interest in ensuring that the recreational performance outerwear provisions in this bill do, in fact, achieve their intended results in a revenue-neutral fashion. We have already been working with you on these provisions, and we commit to continue to do so in the conference discussions on the Customs Trade Facilitation and Enforcement Act. So I want to commit to you to making a good-faith effort to work through these highly technical provisions and to do it in a very quick timeframe. We anticipate a very quick and relatively brief conference so that we can get these issues resolved in a very quick and timely fashion. I yield to the gentleman from Oregon.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I thank the gentleman for his interest. I share his interest, and I appreciate his indulgence. With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, how much time remains on my side?