Derek Schmidt

Mr. Speaker, Procedure · 9 wordsI yield myself such time as I may consume.Procedure Mr. Speaker, Claims · 22 wordsU.S. trade policy is a vital tool to protect American businesses and workers, ensure American competitiveness, and achieve our foreign policy objectives. Reasoning · 19 wordsHowever, smart trade policy, one that puts American workers and businesses first, means nothing if we cannot enforce it. Claims · 51 wordsToday, criminal enterprises and bad actors, predominantly based in China, are breaking U.S. trade laws with impunity. This activity is showing up in three ways: financial fraud, counterfeiting, and forced labor. Over the past decade, law enforcement has identified hundreds of instances of trade fraud, most of which originated in China.¹ Reasoning · 20 wordsNot only has that fraud deprived us of antidumping and countervailing duties, but it has seriously undermined our trade policy. Claims · 27 wordsIn just one year, in FY 2024, U.S. authorities seized over $5.4 billion in counterfeit goods, with China accounting for more than 75 percent of those seizures.² Reasoning · 21 wordsThose seizures reflect billions of dollars stolen from U.S. businesses and workers, which undermines the trade policies designed to protect them. Claims · 49 wordsIn the past 4 years, law enforcement has identified almost $1 billion in goods mined, produced, ³or manufactured, wholly or in part, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. These goods carry significant risk of having been produced by forced labor and are illegal to import into the United States.⁴ Reasoning · 49 wordsWe must do more to punish the criminals who are breaking our trade laws and inflicting serious harm to our economy to the tune of billions of dollars every year.Vague promise Securing the integrity of our trade is how we stop the bleeding and put American workers and families first. Claims · 63 wordsH.R. 1869 will set up the structure needed at the Department of Justice to go after criminals who perpetrate trade crimes.⁵ These crimes include trade fraud, tariff and duty evasion, illegal smuggling, trade-based money laundering, trafficking in counterfeit goods, and more. This bill will give DOJ’s criminal division the resources to dedicate specialized personnel to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes.⁶ Reasoning · 20 wordsThe importance of these issues to all Americans is clear from the broad bipartisan group of Members sponsoring this bill.⁷ Thanks · 49 wordsI thank all of the sponsors for their hard work and particularly the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, ⁸which played a vital and significant role in drafting and advancing this legislation. I also thank the members of the Judiciary Committee for their bipartisan efforts on this bill.⁹Thanks Claims · 10 wordsWe may have significant policy differences on the Judiciary Committee, Off pointPositioning · 17 wordsbut I am glad we can work across party lines to advance trade policies that protect Americans.Positioning The ask · 10 wordsI urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 1869, Procedure · 8 wordsand I reserve the balance of my time.Procedure