Political Quotes

“I rise today to discuss the PORTS Act, legislation I have introduced to protect the American economy from crippling labor disputes at our seaports. Somebody asked why a Senator from Colorado was interested in legislation dealing with the work stoppage or slowdown that occurred on our ports on the west coast. Well, I will tell you why. I was contacted by numerous businesses and people that had their entire furniture lines taken out of their furniture stores. I talked to ranchers who had to face threats of a $1 billion ag export market. I talked to onion growers who watched as their domestic commodity prices crashed due to the port slowdown. I watched as stories were written in newspapers about apple growers in Washington unable to export apples so they dumped apples just to rot in the fields in Washington State. Trade through U.S. seaports is critical. We have been spending weeks on this floor and the floor of the House talking about the Trans- Pacific Partnership and talking about the importance of trade promotion authority, and none of that is possible without an active, successful port system in this country. According to the American Association of Port Authorities, U.S. ports support 23 million jobs, and the value of related economic activity accounts for 26 percent of our national gross domestic product.…”