At a House Democratic press briefing on Tuesday, Rep. John Mannion (D-NY) spoke about President Trump's first 100 days in office.
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00:00Well, that is my honor now to invite Congressman Manion to come speak to you.
00:06Before being in Congress, he was a public school teacher and a state senator from the great state of New York.
00:13Thank you, Vice Chair.
00:15Good morning, everybody. I'm John Manion from Syracuse, New York.
00:19I'm a member of the Agriculture and Education Workforce Committees,
00:23and I represent New York 22, central New York in the Mohawk Valley.
00:27We're at 100 days into this second Trump administration,
00:32and what we've seen is chaos, confusion, confrontation, and fear.
00:38We're witnessing an extraordinary assault on our Constitution, on our norms, and our values, on our democracy,
00:48unlike what we've ever seen before, as we're watching in real time the dismantling of governmental guardrails.
00:55One place where the damage is particularly clear is as it relates to our trade policy.
01:04Tariffs should be used with precision and purpose, but not as blunt political instruments.
01:13I believe now is the time for Congress to reassert the constitutional authority.
01:18It continues to cede to the executive branch, and terror policy is a good place for that to start.
01:25New York 22 has a long history of manufacturing, of innovation.
01:31We have a vibrant agricultural sector and world-class research institutions.
01:36We're home to the largest private investment in the history of this country,
01:42with Micron's historic $100 billion project to onshore semiconductor chip manufacturing in my district in Clay, New York.
01:53It's a transformative project that will create thousands of jobs
01:57and solidify our region's role in the global economy and the global tech economy.
02:04But just as importantly, it is about making sure that our national security
02:10and the resources that we use to preserve our national security is happening right here in our country.
02:19My district is a down-the-middle district.
02:22We have representatives at the state legislature and the counties that are both Republicans and Democrats.
02:28Tips and Science was a piece of legislation that required all levels of government from both parties
02:33and stakeholders and experts in the field to negotiate it, get it right,
02:39so that we can make sure that we put our national security at a premium
02:43and the emerging threats as it relates to supply chains.
02:47We had to address that.
02:49We did address it.
02:49It was done in the last Congress, and as a result, that project is moving forward.
02:55When it comes to tariffs, you know, I've looked at maps with arrows that show the negative impact,
03:02and no arrow is bigger than the state of New York.
03:05I live less than 100 miles from the Canadian border.
03:09My mother grew up in a town called Shattagay, New York, which is five miles from the Canadian border.
03:14But you don't have to be five miles from the border to see the impact that already exists.
03:22Tariffs are necessary tools that can be used for national security,
03:28for protecting hardworking Americans and their jobs and to grow that.
03:33But the current administration's approach lacks strategy and nuance,
03:38fails to recognize beneficial relationships between our friends, our allies, and our business partners like Canada.
03:46In central New York and the Mohawk Valley, we rely heavily on trade with Canada for both imports and exports.
03:53Sometimes a product's production crosses the border multiple times.
04:00Sometimes within the same company, and still tariffs would be imposed on those pre-manufactured products.
04:09Materials come from Canada, and our products go to Canada.
04:15We have multiple industries that are being impacted in agriculture, lumber, metal production.
04:25As I mentioned, our building materials for an important plant that is coming into my district.
04:33There are double and triple tariffs that are hurting the bottom line.
04:38They're hurting jobs.
04:40Contracts are being canceled.
04:41Contracts are not moving forward in the negotiation process.
04:46Costs are being driven up.
04:48It makes absolutely zero sense.
04:51So we have to get this right.
04:55The relationship between my district and Canada is so intricate, and it goes beyond just commerce.
05:05Canadians are our friends.
05:06They're often our family members.
05:08As I said, they're our business partners.
05:12And what newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Carney made remarks last night, and he called this the American betrayal.
05:25To hear stories of Canadians taking American products and turning them over so as to easily identify that product as American-made is unbelievable.
05:35Something that I would not imagine in our lifetime.
05:38And it is an unnecessary act because of the unnecessary acts that have come out of this administration.
05:46The Prime Minister pledged to find new relationships and new agreements with reliable trade partners outside of the United States of America.
06:00And I do agree that describing this situation as a tragedy is accurate.
06:07My conversations with New York farmers, including dairy producers, owners of apple orchards, maple syrup producers, and other industries like lumber, the interconnectedness between New York State's economy and Canada is vital to our collective success.
06:24Items like fertilizer, potash, these come from Canada, 90 percent of our potassium, not just in central New York, but all across this country, comes from Canada.
06:38So we must use precision when it comes to our trade policy.
06:43Tariffs are basically a tax on American consumers and businesses, continues to drive up costs for essential items like groceries, fuel, agricultural supplies.
06:57Where I'm from, in central New York, we want policies that reflect the realities of our interconnected economy with our friend and ally, Canada.
07:07America, America, the people of New York 22, our farmers, we all need policies that make sense, not a whipsaw, on-again, off-again, tariff game that this current administration is playing.
07:22It's reckless.
07:23The impact will be massive.
07:25There will be waves of negative impact on multiple sectors of our economy.
07:31And that means it's going to hurt hardworking Americans, it's going to hurt small businesses.
07:37We must restore our standing as a reliable trade partner, not just with Canada, but with our other allies and trade partners around the world.
07:46Simply, we are hurting consumers.
07:49We're hurting Americans.
07:51We're hurting businesses because of a lack of a cohesive strategy.
07:56We need to be more thoughtful.
07:58We need to be more targeted.
07:59We need to strengthen our economy without placing undue burdens on hardworking Americans.
08:06So I ask that we have sanity to our trade policy and that we restore our country's standing around the world, not just as a reliable trade partner, but as the beacon of democracy around the world.
08:21I appreciate the opportunity to speak.