Political Quotes

“I rise today to take this five minutes to begin what I hope will be a constructive and important debate on the subject of fast track, a debate which I think will certainly rank with among the most important debates that this Congress will undertake this year or next year, whenever we finally do actually take this debate and cast a vote on fast track. I recognize in beginning this discussion tonight, and this will only be the beginning of a long discussion I think we need to have, that there are many Members in this body who have come to the Congress of the United States since the Congress last voted on any kind of substantive trade issue, an issue where the fast track was the essence of the debate. It also ranks as one of the most unusual, some would say arcane, but certainly one of the most complex pieces of legislation that we have in our panoply of legislative tools. It ranks as that because it very uniquely delegates to the President certain responsibilities that normally Congress would not delegate to the President. It gives up certain powers of its own in order to get trade legislation enacted.”