mr. crapo: my amendment preserves the constitutional authority of congress over international trade. it does so by ensuring the president cannot waive or modify a congressionally approved trade agreements including the w.t.o. agreement on trade related aspects on intellectual property rights or trips, the trips agreement and the reason is that the trips agreement like the usica contains provisions that facilitate the united states leadership in scientific and technological innovation. china is challenging that leadership through predatory practices aimed at our highest value sectors, including our pharmaceutical sector. plain and simple, china wants our intellectual property. remarkably, the administration announced without consulting congress that it would support a waiver of u.s. intellectual property rights under the trips agreement with respect to vaccines. moreover, the u.s. trade representative declined to confirm that she would oppose letting this waiver extend to china. colleagues, ther

senator crapo. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman.ould like to follow up on that same line of questioning with regard to trip's. ax tai, are you saying that there is authority, that there is precedent for waiving the trip's process without approval of congress? as i indicated in my opening statement the law statehouse can only be waived if congress agrees. do you disagree with that? >> so, senator crapo, i think it's incredibly instructive to look at the early 2000s, the leadership of president george w. bush working with the congress across the board. the trip's piece was just one piece-of-what has become petfar, the president's emergency for aids relief. it was something done to address a problem that can become untenable in terms of the ability of those suffering most acutely from hiv/aids to get access to the life-saving medicines that were -- >> i understand that, but because of time i want to get right to the question. do you believe that you have the authority to waive the wto trip's provision without congressional approval? >>

mr. chairman i look forward to the testimony of our witness. >> thank you senator crapo i look forward to working with you ambassador tai please go ahead. >> thank you chairman widen and members of the committee for inviting me to testify on the presidents trade agenda. our worker centric trade policy is a key part of the effort to build back better we are making real strides toward ending the pandemic there are pockets of progress and hope that we have a lot of work ahead. thanks to congress for passing the american rescue plan that is already help to get shots in arms and money in the pockets of millions of americans we are seeing the economic benefits of that quick action here in the united states and we're on track for fall economic recovery and more needs to be done. the american jobs plan and the american families plan was a combined to make united states a healthier, safer and more prosperous and more competitive nation. to make full investment to build a better foundation for decades of economic growth. in these extraordinary times, demand extraordinary leadership and creativity t

mr. crapo: madam president, i call up my amendment 1562 as modified with the changes at the desk and ask that it be reported by number. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the amendment. the clerk: the senator from idaho, mr. crapo, for himself and others, proposes an amendment numbered 1562 as modified. mr. crapo: madam president and members of the senate, what we're going to be voting on shortly here, senate amendment numbered 1562, is an example of the bipartisanship that can be achieved if we put in the hard work to work out the details and the differences between us on very critical issues. this is not just an amendment on one topic. this is an entire title, the finance committee's title. the chairman of the finance committee, senator wyden, and i have worked for months together to identify that intersection, which is a big one, as you will see, between republicans and democrats here in the senate on trade policy to help us to put together a package of strong trade policy that wil

mr. crapo: their names are also added to the national law enforcement officer memorial in washington, d.c. currently this memorial contains more than 21,000 names. and this year one more idahoan will be added to this memorial. wyatt christopher mazel was born in wyoming. after growing up in casper, wyoming, wyatt joined the united states air force, serving as a senior airman from 2015 to 2018. after returning to his home and marrying the love of his life, paige, he moved to hide who -- o falls, idaho and graduated from the idaho law enforcement academy in 2014. before graduating he and paige welcomed a beautiful baby daughter, morgan emily. he served as a sheriff's deputy with bonaville county sheriff's office for 13 months. at the graveside service honoring his life, his career was characterized in two words, friendship and service. it takes a special person to serve in our nation's armed forces and an even better one to continue to serve one's community after leaving the air force. by all acc