As I have said all along, for any trade promotion authority bill

Hear the steadfast words of Suzan DelBene, who declared: “As I have said all along, for any trade promotion authority bill to gain my support, it must require strong, enforceable environmental and labor protections.” These words ring not only as political caution, but as moral clarity: that commerce, though mighty, must not be permitted to trample the earth nor enslave the hands of those who toil. Trade may carry wealth across oceans, but if it leaves behind ravaged lands and broken workers, it is not prosperity but plunder.

The origin of this saying lies in the long and contentious debates over trade agreements in the United States, especially those like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, where the lure of expanding markets and increasing profits was weighed against the risk of weakening safeguards for workers and ecosystems. Too often, in history, trade has been pursued without conscience, seeking only the lowest wage and the cheapest production, with labor abused and the environment scarred. DelBene’s words draw a line in the sand: trade may go forward, but only if it bears the weight of responsibility.

History gives us stern lessons on this matter. Consider the mills and factories of the Industrial Revolution. Wealth poured into the coffers of industrial barons, but the cost was paid in blackened skies, rivers choked with filth, and children who labored twelve hours a day. Trade expanded, but at the price of human suffering and environmental ruin. Only when labor protections were enforced—laws limiting child labor, rules for safety, rights to organize—did progress begin to truly uplift rather than oppress. DelBene’s insistence on enforceable protections echoes the hard-won lessons of that age.

The call for environmental protections is equally urgent. Across centuries, men have cut forests, drained wetlands, and stripped the land in pursuit of trade and profit. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s in America stands as a grim example: over-farming without regard for soil health, driven by the hunger for yield and trade, led to devastation so severe that entire families fled their homes. Such tragedies reveal that without care for the land, wealth itself turns to dust. Trade unguarded by environmental responsibility becomes a curse upon the very people it is meant to enrich.

DelBene’s words also remind us that protections must be enforceable, not merely promised. Many a treaty has been signed with noble language, only to be ignored in practice. To enforce is to ensure that corporations and governments are held accountable, that the rights of the worker and the health of the planet are not mere decorations in a document, but living safeguards in daily life. Without enforcement, justice becomes illusion.

The lesson for us is this: wealth and justice must walk together. A nation must never choose between prosperity and principle, for true prosperity flows only when both are honored. To allow trade without protections is to build a tower upon sand—it may rise quickly, but it will collapse beneath the weight of its own injustice. To demand protections is to lay a foundation of stone, ensuring that wealth endures because it is rooted in fairness and sustainability.

And what shall we do in our own lives? We can support leaders who demand accountability in trade agreements, as DelBene does. We can choose products and companies that uphold fair labor practices and respect the environment. We can raise our voices against policies that exploit workers or pollute the earth for the sake of short-term gain. And we can teach our children that profit divorced from responsibility is false profit, and that every purchase is also a moral act.

So remember the teaching of Suzan DelBene: any trade promotion authority bill is unworthy unless it bears the twin pillars of environmental and labor protections. For only when the earth is safeguarded and the worker respected does trade truly serve humanity. Let this wisdom guide us, that commerce may be not the master of people, but their servant, and that the wealth of nations may be built upon justice, not exploitation.