Political Quotes

“Madam President, we are hopefully going to be able to vote very shortly on an amendment to the NDAA that I have submitted, No. 1901, which speaks to a pretty simple concept that when we spend taxpayer money and 70 percent of the goods that we purchase with taxpayer dollars come through the Defense Department, we should be spending that money on American companies. We should be using our resources as a nation to purchase things from companies here in the United States. That has been the law on the books since the 1930s. The Buy America Act, for economic and national security reasons, directs the U.S. Government to buy at least 50 percent of the components of any good from U.S. companies. The problem is that over time, loophole after loophole and exception after exception have been built into the Buy America Act, such that today the exceptions really are the rule. The consequences are pretty dire for American workers. It means that thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of workers have lost their job because work that should have gone to American companies to build components for jet engines, tanks, and submarines are going overseas. But for our national security, we also are faced with issues as well, given the fact that as our supply chain becomes much more internationalized, we are relying on countries that today might be our allies to supply parts but that tomorrow might not. It puts us at risk potentially down the line.…”