Asa Hutchinson: “I would like to speak on several amendments which I would have offered today had objection not been raised. These…”

“I would like to speak on several amendments which I would have offered today had objection not been raised. These amendments, to which objection has been raised on the basis that they are controversial, are, word for word, provisions that passed the U.S. House of Representatives many months ago by overwhelming margins. The first amendment I will be speaking on passed the House of Representatives by a margin of 415 to 1. It is that amendment dealing with coerced and forced abortions in the Nation of China to which objection has been raised and to which I will speak this morning. I further point out, these amendments were filed May 20, a month ago, to the defense authorization bill, and I announced my intent, even prior to that, to offer these amendments and to ensure that those provisions which passed the House with such overwhelming support, reflecting overwhelming public support for these provisions, would have an opportunity to be voted on in the U.S. Senate. I think those votes would have occurred much sooner had they not been tied up in committee. I think that they have overwhelming support, not only by the country, not only by the U.S. House of Representatives, but by the U.S. Senate, and when we have a chance to vote on them--and we will--that we will see them pass this body just as assuredly, and by the same kind of margin, as they passed the House.”