Nominations of Doyle, Foley, Negatu, Pappas and Thanhauser for USITC Members

The committee will come to order. We meet today to consider favorably reporting the nominations of the following individuals to serve as commissioners of the United States International Trade Commission. Brett Doyle, David Foley, Peter Anthony Pappas, Bart Tannhauser, and Samuel Nogatoo. At this session, members will have the opportunity to offer remarks on the nominees, and we plan to vote on the nominees off the Senate floor later today. At the nomination hearing, the view that the ITC is a highly valued, independent, nonpartisan, quasi-judicial agency of immense help to the members of this Congress was broadly emphasized. While the ITC may be a small agency, its deep knowledge and committed career staff provide an outsized positive impact on maintaining US competitiveness across the world. The ITC can function best when it has a full slate of commissioners to lead it. Together, these commissioners work to ensure our trade laws are administered fairly, provide Congress with objective analysis, and help maintain a level playing field for American farmers, manufacturers, innovators and workers. At their hearing, each of these nominees nominees demonstrated an appreciation for that responsibility and their commitment to carry out the Commission's mission with integrity and independence. I am voting in favor of each nominee and encourage my colleagues to do the same. I now recognize Ranking Member Wyden for his remarks.

Thank you very much, uh, Mr. Chairman, and uh i think the chairman would probably agree that it is virtually unheard of for me to support an entire package of donald trump's nominees however in this case i intend to support a slate of nominees from both political parties to do the hard work of the international trade commission and as the chairman and i have talked about the reason that work is so important is this is where you stop the cheaters this is where you go after you know the big people who are trying to rip off uh our businesses and our companies and uh you stand up for american manufacturers and farmers i'm particularly glad to be able to advance the nominations of samuel negatu and bart uh tannhauser both of these nominees have significant experience working on trade issues that matter to our workers and our businesses in my view they will be assets to the itc's core mission again of enforcing the trade laws and providing independent analyses of trade policies over the last uh few weeks i held town hall meetings in uh in eastern oregon not far from uh center of uh home base uh and i was in legrand and baker city john day and enterprise i've had more than eleven hundred open to all town hall meetings and in eastern oregon i again heard from ag communities where the ability to sell grown in oregon beef wheat potatoes and onions both at home and overseas is for those small businesses that i talked to over the last uh week is literally a matter of survival trade enforcement is what makes sure these communities get a fair shake when it's time to get products to market so i'm glad to see the committee moving to fill important seats today in an approach that i don't believe i've supported before but today is a balanced approach There'll be a lot more to say about the administration's trade policy in the future. But uh for today, I'm supporting uh the the nominees, Mister Chairman.

Thank you, Senator Wyden, and this is uh now the point at which any other senator who would choose to can make a statement obviously they are gonna be showing up I hope for the vote at noon. And so procedurally, unless there's an objection, the committee will recess and we will reconvene to vote on the nomination of the Senate floor. On the Senate floor. or just off the Senate floor at noon. Without objection, it is so ordered, and the committee stands in recess.

OK.