Political Quotes

“let me begin by laying out the background of this case. A few months ago, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, which is a part of the National Science Foundation, began to consider bids for a new supercomputer. They had been using a Cray computer, and they went through the normal procurement process, the conclusion of which was a bid an unusual bid in the amount of money that was set--$35 million--won by NEC. There is no dispute over the amount of dollars of this procurement. It is $35 million. But to continue, in the RFP that was proposed, the question was posed--what could you do for $35 million? Clearly the bid proposal from NEC, the Japanese company that makes supercomputers, was the best offer. Following that decision or that initial bid proposal, this information was conveyed to the White House. It was also conveyed to the Department of Commerce. The Department of Commerce then subsequently wrote a letter to the National Science Foundation in which they said they had investigated the matter and made a preliminary decision that there was clear dumping here. That is, NEC was selling this computer or the software for this computer, at well below cost.…”