Political Quotes

“This day has been long in coming. In 2003, I was one of the first Members of Congress to introduce legislation on this topic to stop this anti-free market practice of foreign governments of deliberately undermining the value of their own currency to make their exports less expensive and foreign imports more costly. We have had some modest progress over the years but the overall practice continues to the detriment of our manufacturers and farmers. Currently, counties in northern Illinois have an official unemployment rate of between 8 and 16.4 percent. The unemployment rate in the cities of Rockford, Belvidere, and Freeport are 17.4 percent, 17.8 percent, and 13.3 percent respectively. But if you include those who have given up looking for work, the real unemployment rate for these counties and cities is probably somewhere between 18 and 28 percent. We can't wait any longer for more promises to solve this problem in the future. I am pleased to support the ``new and improved version'' of the legislation introduced by my fellow co-chair of the House Manufacturing Caucus, Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio, to combat exchange rate misalignment by China and other foreign governments. I am a proud original co-sponsor of this legislation. Regardless of any person's view on free trade, opposing exchange rate undervaluation is an area where both sides of the trade debate should come together.”