The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“NAFTA: STOP TAKING AMERICAN WORKERS TO THE CLEANERS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Commerce was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H8814 on Sept. 13, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
NAFTA: STOP TAKING AMERICAN WORKERS TO THE CLEANERS
(Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, we would all have enough money to pay for Medicare if the jobs in our country paid high enough wages to cover the cost of benefits. But, my friends, yesterday the Commerce Department reported again that our Nation is suffering the worst trade performance in our Nation's history.
In April through June of this year, our current account deficit, the broadest measure of trade performance, jumped to $43.6 billion more in the whole, the worst results in history.
The key reasons cited for this worsening record are our growing trade debt with Mexico, and that translates into more lost jobs, more lost benefits in this country for our workers.
So now in Florida we have 100 more packinghouses out of business, ground to the ground, and 14,000 tomato workers out of work. In Milwaukee, WI, we have 7,000 more people laid off from Briggs & Stratton, jobs moved to Mexico, and in Topeka, workers at the Celophane plant there just had their wages cut to $8 an hour from an $11-an-hour level before.
Let us go back to the drawing boards, recast NAFTA and stop taking our workers to the cleaners in this country.
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