In your opening remarks you made the comment that the Buy American requirement must be applied consistently with the U.S.'s international obligations. I was speaking with Ambassador Jacobson yesterday, and that was his response to any concerns that people had about the Buy American provisions in this proposed Jobs Act. Basically he's saying don't worry, we have NAFTA, this isn't going to affect anything.
I'm wondering, were not the same comments made when the 2009 recovery act was introduced? Did they not also say the same thing at that time--don't worry, we have NAFTA, everything's fine--and then subsequent to that did we not proceed with the Canada-United States government procurement agreement just to clarify that everything was open to free trade?
Are we going down the same path here as we did just a few years ago?