Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the motion to instruct offered by my good friend, the ranking member of the Transportation Committee, Mr. Rahall. Mr. Rahall has been a true advocate for the American worker, and certainly for our Nation's transportation system. He understands the key importance of not only passing this bill, but making sure that this bill is putting Americans to work. This Congress, I have been working to improve Buy American requirements through my Buy American Improvement Act. Mr. Rahall introduced the Invest in American Jobs Act of 2011. Unfortunately, we have been unable to move either of these bills here in the House, and we were unable to include language in the House version of the bill that we worked on in committee. But over in the Senate, they came to a bipartisan agreement to include these important provisions in the bill, including prohibiting the segmentation of transportation projects, guaranteeing transparency and opportunities for public comment on requests for waivers to Buy American provisions, requiring longstanding waivers to be reconsidered, and requiring DOT to report annually on the waivers it grants. Now why is this important? It's important because all too often there are loopholes that are either purposely used in order to get a product from overseas, or sometimes just simply overlooked. I had an issue with a contractor, a defense contractor in my district, who lost a job, lost a bid to make a product to a South Korean company.…”