Grassley Supports Pelosi Approach on NAFTA
For weeks, Republicans in the House have been complaining that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn't moving fast enough to bring a vote to the floor on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. "USMCA is being held hostage by career politicians in Washington who are hell-bent on preventing President Trump from getting a win. A delay in approval of this agreement will hit the wallets of family farms in Illinois and across the country. The agriculture community is losing out because political gamesmanship is being placed in front of their interests," Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., wrote in an op-ed published June 18 in the Washington Examiner.
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"Imagine the potential if we can make our digital economy even more competitive on a global scale -- making our products more affordable while simultaneously expanding markets for our local job creators. That is what USMCA sets out to achieve. And that’s why the agreement’s new digital provisions are so important," wrote Rep. George Holding, R-N.C., in an opinion piece in The Hill June 10. "Yet, unfortunately, USMCA is currently being held hostage by the partisan political circus in Washington. Delaying approval of the trade pact hits the pocketbooks of the workers and families in North Carolina and across the nation. Folks across all sectors -- from farmers and factory floor workers to programmers and engineers -- are losing out."
But on the other side of the Capitol, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, gave a full-throated defense of how Pelosi is handling the ratification process. The trade pact must begin in the House before Grassley's committee takes it up and then the Senate votes. Grassley was asked during a June 18 conference call with reporters if Pelosi is slow-walking the process.
Grassley said: Definitely not. He said there are a lot of new Democratic members in the House "that are very anxious to be heard, and a lot of hand-holding that has to be done with these new members. So we just have to be patient until she works through it."
He said he met with Pelosi just two weeks ago and talked about ratifying the new NAFTA, and he said he believes she was very candid. "I think she is very sincere about moving this along," he said, adding, "I didn’t get any idea other than it just takes time for her to work through this."