Nancy Pelosi: “I rise, unfortunately, I rise in opposition to the rule on a bill that I had hoped to come to the floor to support…”

“I rise, unfortunately, I rise in opposition to the rule on a bill that I had hoped to come to the floor to support today, and I do say I regretfully oppose this rule for the following reason: There has been a good deal of debate about trade with China in this Congress. But I really did not think we would be having any today as the President starts his trip. I have myself refrained from speaking on this floor about that issue, as I say, while our President is in China. But then I found out that the Committee on Ways and Means had sneaked this provision into this bill. When I had spoken to members of the committee, they said, ``No, it's not in there; I've read the entire bill, it's not in there.'' But upon further investigation it was learned that changing the name of ``most favored nation'' status to ``normal trade'' status was put into this bill. I can understand why my colleagues would not want to face up to this, because it is not right, and they must be ashamed of what they are doing or else they would let this decision be faced by this Congress standing on its own in the full light of day. But, my colleagues, you can call it whatever we want. It is not a rose, so I will not say a rose by any other name is still a rose because it is more like a thorn, a thorn in the side of the American worker.”