Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlewoman from Washington State who, from day one, has been a champion for human rights in our country and throughout the world. I was proud to travel with her to visit with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, where this issue has been on the forefront for many years and currently. I thank Mr. Hultgren for his leadership and for being part of this legislation, and also Chris Smith and Frank Wolf before him. We have been working on this for a long time. On a previous trip, we visited Tibet, and we called Mr. McGovern the spiritual leader of our trip because everywhere he went in Tibet, and then also in the rest of China, he brought up this issue of reciprocity. It has a human rights aspect to it, but it also is a practical matter that if we want to improve communication and relationships and the rest, if the Tibetan--it is the Chinese Government, but in the form of the Tibetan--local government there wants more people to go to school and visit Tibet and all, as a practical matter, it would be very important for us to have a diplomatic presence in Lhasa. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act as a strong, bipartisan bill. We are very proud of that. It takes an important step forward to advance the future of freedom, dignity, and prosperity for the Tibetan people. Mr. Speaker, I congratulate and acknowledge the leadership of Congressman Jim McGovern, as I mentioned, who is co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.…”