WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee and Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement after Senate passage of stand-alone Trade Promotion Authority (TPA):

“I believe in delegating trade promotion authority to the President – President Obama and his successors – but we cannot leave the protection of workers’ rights to hope and chance when we are negotiating these international agreements. We do not get many opportunities to take up comprehensive trade legislation, so we have to make sure we get it right.

“How we negotiate these upcoming trade agreements will impact our economy and our labor force for a generation to come. We should never have broken this trade legislation into smaller pieces.”

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