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Rounds talks trade and transportation

U.S. senator and former S.D. governor says he expects fast-track trade authority to pass

Sen. Mike Rounds talked to reporters Thursday about trade, transportation and issues lawmakers are working on before the Memorial Day recess.

Here are a few highlights:

On granting the president “fast-track” trade authority: “We’re probably having a vote on the Senate floor (Friday). I expect that it may very well pass. ... I’m in favor of TPA because as I’ve said it gives the president the ability to go in and make the best deal he can and then we get the opportunity as the Senate to approve or disapprove the final product. ... In South Dakota, trade supports more than 124,000 jobs right now, and it results in literally billions of dollars of exports.”

On issues discussed in the Senate before recess: “There are two critical issues that have to be addressed. One of them, we have to provide an extension to the highway trust fund authorization. It’s due to expire at the end of this month. … It should not be a controversial bill, but we have to do some other work first before we can get to it. We expect it will probably be a unanimous agreement to extend the trust fund legislation for a period of 60 days likely. ... The other one is an extension of what we call FISA, a lot of people call it the Patriot act. ... To me it’s critical that we find a way to extend this act, which would otherwise expire on June 1. We have to find a common ground in which we can continue to collect metadata with whatever safeguards additionally others may think we need. … I respect the right to privacy but this is metadata; nobody is listening in on anybody’s phone calls.”

On country-of-origin labeling: “I would expect that the Senate, for lack of a better term, will keep our powder dry for a while and we’ll wait to see what the next request is in terms of compliance. I do know we don’t want to have tarps put on ag products we are trying to ship overseas, or into Mexico or into Canada. … They clearly don’t want to have trade wars. They want to see things worked out. I think we have to let the appeals process play out before we make a decision” on whether to appeal the country-of-origin labeling ruling from the World Trade Organization earlier this week.