12.03.19

Pelosi’s Priorities: Actions Speak Louder Than Words

While USMCA Languishes, House Democrats Make Time For Impeachment And Climate Conferences In Europe, But Not ‘New Jobs For American Workers’

 

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY): “This has been the Democrats’ strategy for months now: Obsess over impeachment and obstruct everything else. Take the USMCA, which would create 176,000 new American jobs. Speaker Pelosi has been stalling it for months, constantly saying she is optimistic, or getting close, or almost there. For months it has been this broken record. I understand this very week, while the Speaker of the House has apparently flown to Madrid to discuss climate change, she keeps offering the same empty rhetoric that’s no different than what she was saying 10 months ago.  American workers have waited, and waited, and waited. House Democrats keep stalling.” (Sen. McConnell, Floor Remarks, 12/03/2019)

  • SEN. McCONNELL: “This is the biggest opportunity House Democrats have had, in the entirety of their first year in power, to do something significant and substantive for American families. To actually pass something new and real that can become law and strengthen our nation. In other words, the USMCA is House Democrats’ final exam for their whole first year in power. And unless something turns around very quickly, after nearly a year of happy talk and empty promises, their leadership seems determined to flunk that exam. All impeachment, all the time, and even the most obvious win for American workers and small businesses gets blocked. That will be Democrats’ progress report if the USMCA goes nowhere.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 11/20/2019)

 

House Democrats Are Hastily Moving Forward On Impeachment …

POLITICO: “Dems sprint to the impeachment finish line” (Politico’s Huddle, 12/02/2019)

  • “House Democrats want to vote on whether to impeach President Trump by Christmas, which means they have about three weeks to write up articles of impeachment, debate them and vote on them…. If this all sounds as though Democrats are rushing, it’s because they are.” (The Washington Post, 12/02/2019)
  • “MARK YOUR CALENDARS: [House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD)] announces House now will be in session 12/16-12/20, a change from the previous schedule…. [C]ould be the week they take full House action on impeachment.” (CBS’ Ed O’Keefe, @edokeefe, Twitter, 12/02/2019)

 

… And Flying To Madrid To Make ‘Climate Change [A] Priority Even Amid Impeachment Mania’

THE WASHINGTON POST: “Pelosi makes climate change priority even amid impeachment mania” (The Washington Post, 12/02/2019)

 

Meanwhile, USMCA Could Drag Into Next Year, Still ‘Waiting On Speaker Pelosi’

“The window for reaching a deal this year on Trump’s trade agreement with Canada and Mexico is rapidly coming to a close…. Pelosi has opened the door to the negotiations dragging into 2020. Supporters worry that pushing it past December makes it more likely the trade deal will get derailed by presidential campaign politics and stuck permanently in legislative purgatory.” (“Congress Braces For Chaotic December,” The Hill, 12/02/2019)

“Mexico is the only one of the three nations to ratify the deal, which was signed almost exactly a year ago. Canada says it will move in tandem with the United States.” (Reuters, 11/29/2019)

SEN. McCONNELL: “Mexico has passed this. Canada is waiting on us. I believe a bipartisan majority in the Senate are ready to pass it. Our workers, our job creators, and our neighbors are just waiting on Speaker Pelosi.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 11/20/2019)

 

Mexican President To Pelosi: ‘Let Us Move Forward With The USMCA Promptly’

“Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has urged U.S. House Democrats to ratify the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, a key engine for Mexico’s faltering economy, saying his country has met its commitments regarding labor issues.” (“Mexico’s President Urges Quick U.S. Ratification of Trade Deal,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/29/2019)

PRESIDENT OF MEXICO ANDRÉS MANUEL LÓPEZ OBRADOR: “Madam Speaker: Mexico respectfully invites you to conclude this complex chapter between our countries and, as I said in my October 8 letter, let us move forward with the USMCA promptly …” (President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Letter to Speaker Pelosi, 11/26/2019)

  • “The USMCA is beneficial for our societies and their prosperity, and especially for the workers of our three countries. It will bring a new dynamism to the economy, increase investment and create jobs from north to south and coast to coast of our region, and bring certainty to the tumultuous global economy.” (President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Letter to Speaker Pelosi, 11/26/2019)

 

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SENATE REPUBLICAN COMMUNICATIONS CENTER

Related Issues: USMCA, Free Trade, Jobs, Economy