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Update from Senator Bob Corker
October 14, 2011


Passage of Free Trade Agreements Good News for Tennessee

Senator Corker voted in favor of three long-standing free trade agreements between the United States and South Korea, Colombia, and Panama. All three agreements were passed by the Senate on Wednesday evening.

“I’m particularly excited about what passage of these trade agreements means for Tennessee,” said Corker after the votes. “Our exports to these countries have increased substantially, reaching almost $900 million last year, and these agreements will create a tremendous opportunity for further export and job growth in our state.”

The Last Thing We Need Right Now Is a Trade War


***Click image to view video***

Senator Corker voted against passage of S.1619, the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act sponsored by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), because it could provoke a damaging trade war that would hurt the U.S. economy.

“In 2010, the U.S. imported $365 billion worth of goods from China. This bill would potentially inflate the price U.S. consumers and businesses paid for those items by 20%-30%. That's about $60 billion-$100 billion in extra costs taken from the U.S. economy in the middle of a recession,” Corker wrote in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.  “If we want to compete with China in manufacturing, we need to create a better business climate for manufacturing in the U.S. We should also address China's disregard for intellectual property rights, push China to end preferential procurement policies and to invest in manufacturing plants in the U.S., and ensure that we maintain access to China's 1.3 billion consumers. These are the right policy responses toward Beijing.”

Wall Street Journal (Op-ed):Avoiding Smoot-Hawley Redux

Willing to Debate Jobs Legislation

On Tuesday, Senator Corker opposed a procedural motion advancing debate on President Obama’s jobs bill because it would have further delayed passage of pending free trade agreements with South Korea, Panama, and Colombia that had been held up for 995 days.

“I welcome an opportunity to focus on job creation in the U.S. Senate, but even my friends on the other side of the aisle have acknowledged that the president’s jobs bill is not a serious effort to put policy in place. In fact, though we don’t support the policies in either bill, we encouraged Senator McConnell to have a vote tonight on both the president’s and the majority’s jobs legislation. Unfortunately, Senator Reid objected and forced this procedural vote instead,” said Corker.  “People who invest and create jobs are looking for Washington to have the courage to address the country’s long-term structural issues, and the deficit reduction commission is our best opportunity to make that happen. I continue to push for the commission to exceed its mandate and achieve at least $4 trillion in overall savings and to focus on embracing tax reform that eliminates loopholes, permanently lowers individual and corporate rates and broadens the base and on addressing reform of Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid in a meaningful way that ensures solvency. In addition, Congress should focus on peeling back unnecessary federal regulations that are hurting job creation, passing a longer-term highway bill and growing all forms of domestic energy production.”

Knoxville News Sentinel: Sens. Alexander, Corker vote against debate on jobs bill proposal

New Bank Fees: A Predictable Consequence of Government Price Fixing

Senator Corker, a vocal opponent of the “Durbin amendment” of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law which instructed the Federal Reserve to set an artificial limit on the price banks can charge retailers for their customers’ use of debit cards, said this week he was “not surprised banks are now charging new fees in response to the regulations” and that the “fees are a predictable consequence of government price fixing.”

“Having warned about the consequences of flawed rules regulating debit card transactions, I’m not surprised banks are now charging new fees in response to the regulations. These fees are a predictable consequence of government price fixing. When governments engage in price fixing, the consumer always loses,” said Corker.

Memphis Daily News (Blog): Sen. Corker, on new debit fees: “See, I told you so”

Chattanooga Regional Manufacturers Association



On Monday, Senator Corker addressed the Chattanooga Regional Manufacturers Association annual meeting. He shared his perspective on how Washington policies – primarily spending, debt, and overregulation – are affecting the economy and job creation.  The associations presented him with the C.D. Mitchell Award given annually to an individual who has significantly contributed to the manufacturing industry.