Next week, as part of the Democrat’s “Make it in America” plan, the House of Representatives will vote on a measure designed to compel lawmakers to tackle the contentious issue of the nation’s ever-increasing trade deficit.

The End the Trade Deficit Act, introduced over a year ago by Rep. Pete DeFazio (D-OR), has languished in the House Way and Means committee without receiving a single hearing. But in an effort to turn their focus to job creation ahead of November’s midterm election, the bill will finally receive a vote.

“We need a trade overhaul to help our nation export goods, not jobs,” DeFazio said in a press release. “The world is not forever going to lend us money to buy things that we used to make here. And as we impoverish more and more of the middle class by exporting their jobs, we’re going to have even less capability of buying those goods. Something has to change.”

Since 1998, America’s trade deficit has more than quadrupled. That year, the trade deficit totaled just $166 billion. Fast forward eight years later and America’s trade deficit ballooned to $753 billion.

The massive increase was largely due to a persistent trade deficit with China, which has received special trade status with the U.S. since its entry into the World Trade Organization. Last year, China accounted for 60 percent of the trade gap.

The trade deficit has been a major drag on the nation’s finances, a major contributor to the national debt. Thirty-three consecutive years of trade deficit have resulted in a negative account balance of $6.7 trillion – representing over half of the nation’s $13 trillion national debt.

The jobs losses have been just as costly. In 1980, around the time that globalization exploded and free trade agreements became more prevalent, the U.S. had 19.2 million manufacturing jobs. Since then, the sector’s total employment has fallen to just 11.6 million as jobs are outsourced to low-wage nations, like Mexico and China. Since the late 1990s when free trade exploded worldwide, America’s loss of manufacturing jobs has only occurred at a faster rate.

“Our trade policies all have the same fundamental flaw; they open up U.S. markets to imports, but always fail to open up foreign markets to U.S. exports,” DeFazio said. “Chinese actions to protect their markets have been highly successful, while the U.S. has given away millions of manufacturing jobs.”

DeFazio’s legislation would establish an Emergency Commission to End the Trade Deficit. The commission would study America’s trade policies and the deficit and report its finding’s to Congress and the president along with a plan to reduce the overall and bilateral trade deficit in the next 10 years. Until Congress holds hearings on the finding, there would be a moratorium on all new free trade agreements.

The piece of legislation is part of a larger strategy by Democrats to focus on job creation, especially in the manufacturing sector. Also on the agenda next week as part of the “Make it in America” plan, Democrats also plan on introducing three other bills designed to stimulate the manufacturing sector.

Some economists, however, believe that there is no more important issue facing America’s economy than the trade deficit.

“The trade deficit, along with the credit and housing bubbles, were the principal causes of the Great Recession,” University of Maryland economist Peter Morici wrote recently.

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