Strengthening Job Opportunities and Establishing Fair Trade Policies Supporting Working Families Working families across America form the backbone of our economy and are at the root of our prosperity. In the coming years, economic security for our country will mean long-term job security for working families, strong public education, affordable health care, and a Social Security system that will be ready to meet the needs of retiring Americans. I will continue to fight to raise the minimum wage to meet the costs of living, and I will continue to fight against irresponsible corporate tax breaks at the expense of working families. -Senator Russ Feingold, Supporting Working Families, 2004 The prospects for America’s working families are directly tied to: Quality public education and affordable child care, Affordable health care, Reliable retirement security and Fair trade policies   The minimum wage must be increased. We must support men and women who are working hard to provide for themselves and their families. The U.S. Federal Reserve reports that the average family income dropped by 2.3 percent between 2001 and 2004 and this decline is a direct result of falling wages.  Minority income remains less than 60 percent that of whites. We must support the right of workers to join a union and to collectively bargain for better pay and benefits.   We must eliminate tax incentives that encourage companies to go abroad.   Fixing Flawed Trade Agreements We cannot afford to pursue trade policies that gut our manufacturing sector and send good jobs overseas. We cannot afford to undermine the protections we have established for workers, the environment, and our public health and safety. And we cannot afford to squander our democratic heritage by entering into trade agreements that supersede our right to govern ourselves through open, democratic institutions.  The outgrowth of the major trade agreements… has been a race to the bottom in labor standards, environmental standards, health and safety standards, in nearly every aspect of our economy. A race to the bottom is a race in which even the winners lose. -Senator Russ Feingold on Our Flawed Trade Policies, From the Senate Floor, September 16, 2003 Trade can be good for our economy, the economies of our trading partners and for development prospects of countries less fortunate than ours.  But the trade policies of the last decade and more have been devastating to our working families, and have undermined our democratic institutions.  We need to turn our trade policies around to promote sustainable economic growth for our Nation and for our trading partners.  Unfair trade agreements like the North American Trade Agreement for example, have helped send 2.5 million manufacturing jobs beyond our borders since 2001 and disadvantaged small family farmers in favor of multinational agribusinesses. We need to establish minimum standards for trade agreements that will spur economic growth and sustainable development.  Trade agreements must: Support men and women who are working hard to provide for themselves and their families, Provide enforceable worker protections, including the core International Labor Organization standards, Preserve the ability of the United States to enact and enforce its own trade laws, Ensure foreign investors are not provided with greater rights than those provided under U.S. law, Ensure that food entering our country meets domestic food safety standards, Preserve the ability of federal, state, and local governments to maintain essential public services and to regulate private sector services in the public interest, Include environmental provisions subject to the same enforcement as commercial provisions, Preserve the right of federal, state, and local governments to use procurement as a policy tool, including: through Buy American laws, environmental laws such as recycled content, and purchasing preferences for small, minority, or women-owned businesses. Require that all trade negotiations and the implementation of trade agreements be conducted openly. Because of so-called “Fast Track” implementing procedures, trade agreements get jammed through Congress without meaningful debate on the ability to amend them. This has to change. Many decisions that affect the American people’s choices are being set by trade negotiators with disproportionate influence from specific business interests rather than with involvement by elected representatives and with the public interest in mind. For example, Congress should be setting policy on an issue as importation as the re-importation of prescription drugs, not our trade negotiators. Buy American We owe it to American manufacturers and their employees to make sure they get a fair shake…  By strengthening Federal procurement policy, we can help to bolster our domestic manufacturers during these difficult times. As I have repeatedly noted, Congress cannot simply stand on the sidelines while tens of thousands of American manufacturing jobs have been and continue to be shipped overseas. -Senator Russ Feingold, on the Introduction of the Buy American Improvement Act of 2005, February 16, 2005 The U.S. federal government is one of the biggest consumers in the world.  It makes sense that it make every effort to purchase goods made in America. When the government does purchase foreign goods, it should report to Congress and the public about why it did so. Currently, the Department of Defense is the only agency that has to produce such a report. Similar requirements should also apply to the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Interior, and Energy.