Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I rise in support of my bill H.R. 3317, the Rolling Stock Protection Act. I ask that my colleagues join me in supporting this simple and direct bill. In May of last year, this bipartisan legislation was favorably reported out of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. My bill will close a loophole in Federal law that currently allows some of the country's largest transit agencies that receive Federal Transit Administration dollars to purchase rolling stock, such as railcars, from State-owned enterprises and State- connected businesses, including those linked to the Chinese Communist Party. Mr. Speaker, I will be honest with you. I thought Congress had fixed this problem back in 2019 with the passage of the Transportation Infrastructure Vehicle Security Act, or TIVSA. That measure, which was included in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, prohibited the purchase of rolling stock from State-owned enterprises by transit agencies receiving Federal funds. Why are we back today? We are here today to make it crystal clear to the FTA that CCP-connected companies are never allowed to receive taxpayer dollars.…”