Political Quotes

“I rise simply to endorse, with fullest conviction, the statement of the chairman in this matter, and to emphasize, if I may be allowed, that executive agreements can never override statute. If they do, they are null and void, and the courts will so hold. For us even to suggest that that might be possible would be to introduce into our governmental administrative arrangements matters of ambiguity and doubt and uncertainty that would have the capacity to incapacitate what has turned out to be an extraordinarily successful procedure in world trade. It has taken us 60 years--63 from the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934--to reach a point where we are the world's largest trading nation and leading the way in these matters in the world and hugely respected for that and known to have the capacity to negotiate when the Congress gives that authority to the President. The subsequent negotiations are executive agreements. If any part of them should, by inadvertence or intention, be contrary to present statutory law, they are null and void. That proposition must never be put into question as I fear this matter before us might do. I yield the floor and thank the Chair.”