mr. michaud: mr. speaker, i'd like to yield to the congresswoman from california, ms. woolsey, for the purpose of a unanimous consent. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. woolsey: madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to insert into the record a letter from the international union of painters and allied trades in opposition to the korea f.t.a. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. michaud: mr. speaker, i'd like to ask unanimous consent for the purpose of a unanimous consent to ms. kaptur to enter remarks into the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. kaptur: madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to inst into the record a letter from the hardest working workers in america, the international otherhood of boiler makers, ironship builders, black smith and helpers. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. michaud: i'd like to yield to the congresswoman from ohio, ms. sutton, for the purpose of a unanimous consent request. the speaker pro tempore: without obj

mr. michaud: mr. speaker, i'd like to yield to the congresswoman from california, ms. woolsey, for the purpose of a unanimous consent. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. woolsey: madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to insert into the record a letter from the international union of painters and allied trades in opposition to the korea f.t.a. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. michaud: mr. speaker, i'd like to ask unanimous consent for the purpose of a unanimous consent to ms. kaptur to enter remarks into the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. kaptur: madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to insert into the record a letter from the hardest working workers in america, the international brotherhood of boiler makers, ironship builders, black smith and helpers. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. michaud: i'd like to yield to the congresswoman from ohio, ms. sutton, for the purpose of a unanimous consent request. the speaker pro tempore: without

mr. michaud: thank you, miami -- mr. speaker. at this time i yield two minutes to the gentleman from caling california, mr. sherman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized for two minutes. mr. sherman: looks like the only thing congress is going to do this year about jobs is to ship them overseas. trade adjustment assistance is being authorized tomorrow. but not a penny is being appropriated tomorrow and any penny that is appropriated will no doubt be taken from health and education spending necessary without the trade agreements. this south korean free trade agreement will increase our trade deficit by tens of billions of dollars and every billion of dollars of increase in our trade deficit costs us tens of thousands of jobs. the agreement is being sold as if goods made in south korea are the only goods that are going to come into our country. that's wrong in three ways. first, if goods are 65% made in china, 35% finished in south korea, they come into our country duty-free. and that 35% of the work

mr. michaud: thank you, mr. speaker, and i want to thank my friend for yielding to me. this makes in order three nafta-style free trade agreements. one with korea, one with panama and one with colombia. all of which -- all of which i opposed. i want to focus my remarks at this time on the trade agreement with colombia because it hits so close to me at home. you will hear from members that feel passionate by will colombia from their experience in that country. they support the free trade agreement and i respect their perspective. but there are some of us who feel just as passionately about our brothers and sisters who are killed in colombia just because they are members of a union. and we oppose the agreement. i am a proud card-carrying member of the united steel members union, a member of the union for over 39 years and served as vice president of local 152. workers in colombia are being killed for the exact same thing. since january 23 unionists have been assassinated. 51 were killed last year. more than the rest of the world combined. just for carrying a union card li

mr. michaud: thank you, madam speaker. i yield myself 15 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. michaud: in response to the two previous speakers, i just want to highlight at this time the lunch bucket i rried with me over 29 years at the paper mill. it's bad for the workers who carry a lunch bucket similar to this. at this time i'd like to yield one minute to the gentlewoman from california, ms. sanchez. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from california is recognized for one minute. ms. sanchez: madam speaker, i rise today to speak in opposition to this fatally flawed trade agreement. during a time when our top priority should be job creation, congress is instead considering free trade agreements that will ship more american jobs overseas. making matters worse, we need to make sure that our current trade laws are being enforced. this korea f.t.a. will allow china to dump even more cheap goods into the u.s. without paying proper duties. and we're not talking about just a couple dollars he

mr. michaud of maine. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. michaud: as my colleagues have stated, our veterans' safety should be one of our top priorities in the veterans' sexual assault prevention and health care enhancement act does just that. i'd like to thank chairman miller and ranking member bob filner, the chair of the subcommittee, as well as all my colleagues on the house veterans' affairs committee for working in such a bipartisan manner to get this very important health care bill to the floor. within h.r. 2074, i would like to highlight two important provisions. you heard the chairwoman explain the bill very eloquently, think proprovisions i'd like to highlight in section two, which was offered by the subcommittee on health chair ms. buerkle will correct the troubling finding in a g.a.o. report. the report essentially found that veterans and employees were exposed to personal dangers, including sexual assault. this is simply unacceptable and i want to thank the subcommittee chair for offering that bill to us. and the second provisio

mr. michaud: to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. michaud: i call attention to the american people last friday the president signed the free trade agreements for colombia, panama and south korea. the american people don't support more flawed trade agreements, so the president signed them into law quietly. the white house issued no press releases or statements, no photos were taken, no signing pens were publicly handed out. if these agreements are job creators that the president promised us would be, then why wouldn't he have a public signing for signing the p.t.a.? it's because these f.t.a.'s aren't going to create american jobs. they might create jobs in korea and china but they won't create them here at home. if i were the president i'd want to keep these agreements quiet too. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from virginia seek recognition? >> i ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recogni

mr. michaud. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recnized for three minutes. mr. mitchell: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to -- mr. michaud: thank you, mr. speaker, and i want to thank my friend for yielding to me. this makes in order three nafta-style free trade agreements. one with korea, one with panama and one with colombia. all of which -- all of which i opposed. i want to focus my remarks at this time on the trade agreement with colombia because it hits so close to me at home. you will hear frommembers that feel passionate by will colombia from their experience in that country. they support the free trade agreement and i respect their perspective. but there are some of us who feel jusas passionately about our brothers and sisters who are killed in colombia just because they are members of a union. and we oppose the agreement. i am a proud card-carrying member of the united steel members union, a member of the union for over 39 years and served as vice president of local 152. workers in colombia are being killed for the exact same thing. since january 23 unio

mr. michaud: to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, jazz 1. mr. michaud: there is talk about who is blocking our economic recovery but there is plenty of blame to go on both sides of the aisle. china is literally robbing us of our factories and our manufacturing jobs that we haven't done a thing about it. the house must consider the senate currency bill immediately and the president must finally deliver on his campaign promise and crack down on china administratively. getting tough on china's currency manipulation will create conservatively one million jobs, not costing the american people a penny. it's time to stop the excuses and end the partisan bickering. it's time for the president and the house leadership to go beyond rhetoric and get the tough job of china currency that lakes -- manipulation taken care of. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman rise? >> to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >>