mr. trumka and mr. donohue. we know you're busy people and we know you're sincere people in your respective areas of the law. senator wyden, let's turn to you, first. senator wyden: thank you, mr. chairman. i indicated i want our colleagues ask their questions. i want to make very quick points. mr. trumka, with whom i agree so often, suggested there would be insufficient public scrutiny of t.p.p. colleagues, under this legislation, by law the american people will have t.p.p. in their hands for two months before the president signs it and months more before it is fully debated on the floor of the house and senate. so with that i want to have my colleagues ask questions. senator hatch: mr. donohue, as you noted in your opening testimony and as i've been saying for years now, since trade promotion authority expired in 2007, our countries other competitors in the world marketplace have not been sitting on their laurels when it comes to trade. indeed, there are hundreds of free trade agreements around the world that

mr. trumka, mr. donahue, good to see you both. mr. umka, a lot of people accuse you and me against trade and protectionist and being stuck in the last century or even the one before the last century. did a.f.l. oppose the -- this from the beginning? mr. trumka: we engaged almost five years ago we submitted dozens and dozens, a couple hundred suggested language changes to make the agreement better. we did and still want to be able to support t.p.p., but in its current standards, it falls far short. senator brown: you could see from the amendments a number of us will offer, there will be a lot of them, mr. chairman, as you may have heard by now, that we will be offering on thursday or wednesday, i guess, you could see that this trade agreement, the t.p.a. and t.p.p. could be improved significantly if -- if you would take two or three ideas that you have tried to constructively engage u.s.t.r. or the staff of this committee in to give me just some ideas of where we could do much better than we are doing on this. mr. trumka: with regard to

mr. trumka: thank you, mr. chairman. before i start my oral testimony, i'd like to submit for the record my full testimony. senator hatch: without objection. richard trumka: tumtum and bipartisan letters signed by the house and the senate urging the administration to do something on currency manipulation. a g.a.o. report that says that the current labor standards need -- are weak and need to have more done with monitoring and enforcement of labor provisions. and an analysis of the hatch-wyden-ryan t.p.a. bill by ranking member sander levin. i'd like to have those submitted in the record. senator hatch: without objection, it will be -- plate in the record at this point. immediately following your remarks. mr. donohue: mr. chairman, there are few materials like my formal testimony. senator hatch: we'll put them all in the record. mr. trumka: i'd like to state, -- start mr. chairman, by , stipulating that tom donohue is an expert of presidents. he goes back to abe lincoln's days. [laughter] i think he is ably qualified to be

mr. trumka, mr. donahue, good to see you both. mr. trumka, a lot of people accuse you and me of being against trade and protectionist and being stuck in the last century or even the one before the last century. did a.f.l. oppose this from the beginning? mr. trumka: we engaged almost five years ago, we submitted dozens and dozens, a couple hundred suggested language changes to make the agreement better. we did and still want to be able to support t.p.p., but in its current standards, it falls far short. senator brown: you could see from the amendments a number of us will offer, there will be a lot of them, mr. chairman, as you may have heard by now, that we will be offering on thursday, or wednesday, i guess, you could see that this trade agreement, the t.p.a. and t.p.p. could be improved significantly if -- if you would take two or three ideas that you have tried to constructively engage u.s.t.r. or the staff of this committee in to give me just some ideas of where we could do much better than we are doing on this. mr. trumka: with reg

mr. trumka and mr. donahue for doing it. i've talked with mr. trumka often in the past. visited with a number of members of the chambers in the interest of my colleagues who want to ask question i will forbear a further statement at this time, mr. chairman. >> thank you senator wyden. our first witness is thomas j. donahue. he's the president and ceo of the u.s. chamber of commerce. the largest business organization in the the world represents more than 3 million businesses across various industries and sectors. mr. donahue has held this position since 1997. we've had a lot of experience working together. prior to that he served as 13 years as president and ceo of the american trucking association. earlier in his career, he served as the deputy assistant postmaster general of the united states and was vice president of development at fairfield university. mr. donahue received a bachelors degree from st. johns university and an mba from adolphfy. we welcome you. our second witness on this panel is richard l. trumka. mr. trumka is the president of 12.5 million members of th

mr. trumka: thank you, mr. chairman. before i start my oral testimony, i'd like to submit for the record my full testimony. senator hatch: without objection. richard trumka: tumtum and bipartisan letters signed by the house and the senate urging the administration to do something on currency manipulation. a g.a.o. report that says that the current labor standards need -- are weak and need to have more done with monitoring and enforcement of labor provisions. and an analysis of the hatch-wyden-ryan t.p.a. bill by ranking member sander levin. i'd like to have those submitted in the record. senator hatch: without objection, it will be -- plate in the record at this point. immediately following your remarks. mr. donohue: mr. chairman, there are few materials like my formal testimony. senator hatch: we'll put them all in the record. mr. trumka: i'd like to state, -- start mr. chairman, by , stipulating that tom donohue is an expert of presidents. he goes back to abe lincoln's days. [laughter] i think he is ably qualified to be

mr. trumka you first. enforceable, i need you to explain where this is enforceable as opposed to other trade deals, because the president says it is. >> this is no different than the same agreement that george bush negotiated on may 10th. it gives us no additional enforceable rights. we were told that violation, murdering a trade unionist or having violence against a trade unionist does not violate these trade agreements. there's no rights to be enforced here. it is what it's always been and that's a lot of talk. employers, companies, can use this system to file cases themselves. >> trade disputes. >> correct. >> so if other words, if someone doesn't like what's going on, and they challenge it, what's the recourse? >> they can go through the courts and if they lose to the courts, they go to a private secret tribunal and they can overturn it and give them profits. with us, we have to wait for a government to do this. we do it with guatemala, but it's going six years. we did it in colombia. since the labor c

mr. trumka you haven't helped them here today very much with their criticisms. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate that. >> well i expect nothing less than that from you i'll tell you. i have known you a long time and i have a lot of respect for you. but senator wyden deserves a lot of credit here. i think it's very important we move forward and let the committee function properly and i'm looking forward to even more lively discussion and debate tomorrow as we mark up this bill. let me just say that i have tremendous respect for both of you. mr. donohue, you've been around here a long time. you're no shrinking violet, i'll tell you, and you handle yourself very well and you represent the business community about as well as anybody i have ever seen, and i have seen a lot of great business leaders. mr. trumka i think you represent the unions very well. you're a tough guy, you're a smart guy and even though we disagree on this bill i have been paying pretty strict attention to you, too. this is basically your administration that is doing this. i'm trying to help the president o

mr. trumka, you're a tough guy. you're a smart guy. even though we disagree on this bill i've been paying pretty strict attention to you too. this is basically your administration that is doing this. i'm trying to help the president on this bill. i personally think they're right in pushing it the way they have. i still have the obligation to just tell you how much i respect and appreciate you as well. i look forward to everything. i think we got to find some things to work on together. i'm going to count on you to help me understand that. with that we'll recess until further notice. >> thank you. >>> in terms of the enforced bill that's part of the senate version authorization that's meant resistance in the house with a like protect for the same issue to fight evasion of duties. do you see compromise there or think you will go within force tomorrow? >> i think we'll go within force. we have worked this out for years. between both houses and both parties. it's a sensitive thing that we've got to get through. i'm not going to be very ena