Issues

The U.S. must be competitive abroad in order to be prosperous at home. 

Free Trade Agreements are powerful tools to create jobs, expand economic opportunities for U.S. businesses, and enhance key alliances in critical regions of the world.  And, unlike failed stimulus programs, expanding trade does not cost a single cent. 

The recent passage of separate Free Trade Agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea will set in motion the creation of tens of thousands of new jobs, a major expansion of U.S. exports, and broad economic growth, while precluding the need for hundreds of billions in new spending or higher deficits.  Committee Chairman Ros-Lehtinen and other Committee members successfully urged the Administration to send the agreements to Congress, and held numerous Committee hearings on the topic. 

The Committee has also held hearings examining the impact Eurozone crisis, the development of energy resources with U.S. allies as way of spurring economic growth, lowering the cost of energy, and reducing U.S. dependence on hostile foreign regimes as sources of energy, and economic opportunities in Europe and Eurasia.