Chuck Grassley

We have not yet received those documents, so I would like your assistance that this information will be made available to Senator Johnson and me within a week.

I really want to personally thank Senator Wyden, once again, for his help on this effort.

I want to compliment the chairman and the ranking member for moving ahead on this package of bills we have.

To me, it is common sense, when 95 percent of the people live outside the United States, and we are an exporting Nation, that we should do whatever we can do to get our products into other countries.

I want to convince everyone to support TPA.

Senator Wyden and I have done our best to create both a product, and a process on this legislation, that is bipartisan.

If Congress grants Trade Promotion Authority to President Obama, could immigration provisions be included in future trade agreements?

I expect USTR to continue this tradition of consultation; however, we have reason to be concerned about over-reach of this administration.

It is not enough to simply end equitable sharing. Congress needs to reclaim its control and oversight over this unaccountable funding stream.

And we know in the Senate if we do not get some bipartisan agreement, nothing is going to happen.

But as asset forfeiture is currently practiced, nothing is obliging the Government to control itself.

Even in the midst of the current reform effort, no bill before Congress would abolish civil asset forfeiture and I would not support one if it were before the Congress.

As Madison remarked in Federalist 51, in framing a government which is to be administered by man over man, the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed and, in the next place, oblige it…

I believe that mandatory minimum sentences are an important tool but that we need to use that tool effectively.

In other words, the decision has been made that Congress can't have the opinion, and so we won't get the opinion.

I won't get the opinion?

The Constitution recognizes us as equal, but I was going to call on you first because you are the senior Member here today.

We are going to have to find common ground, particularly in the Senate, to get a bill through the United States Senate.

I want to thank you, once again, for a good discussion on a very controversial issue.

I really think that is the way to proceed, Mr. Chairman, and adding extraneous fights to things where we can go forward on a bipartisan basis I do not think is helpful.

To accomplish something in the Senate, we have to have bipartisan support.

It undermines the innovation and creativity that patents are supposed to protect.

Patent litigation abuse imposes high costs on American businesses. It wastes resources that could instead be utilized for research, development, job creation and economic growth.

We're here today to discuss the topic of patent litigation abuse, and in particular, the destructive tactics of so-called 'patent trolls.'

We cannot fail the American worker. Reforms are needed to put integrity back into our immigration system.