President Kennedy said that the bill could "affect the unity of the West, the course of the cold war, and the growth of our nation for a generation or more to come." Commerce Secretary Luther H. Hodges called it "one of the most important pieces of legislation to have come before Congress in the last decade." They were talking about H.R. 9900, the Trade Expansion Act of 1962—perhaps the first New Frontier bill that really proposes to thrust to a new frontier.
The trade bill would empower the President to slash tariffs...
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