Political Quotes

“I thank Senator Shaheen for her leadership on this issue. We have had many discussions about how to advance human rights and what is the best strategy to get the Magnitsky bill enacted into law. She has been a real champion with her leadership on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Europe and her leadership on the Helsinki Commission. I thank her for her good advice for allowing us to be able to get to this day. I am convinced tomorrow the Senate will pass this legislation, the President is going to sign it, and we will achieve a great victory for human rights. I thank the Senator for her observations as we were talking about how to move forward with this bill in connection with PNTR for Russia. I know Senator Lieberman talked about it a little bit earlier. I am convinced, as important as this bill was, that the Magnitsky bill by itself would have been extremely difficult for us to get through to the President and for the President to sign into law and that in combining it with PNTR, we got it done. I also believe that PNTR without Magnitsky would not have gotten done. So I think the marriage of these two bills was the right choice. They allow us to move forward, as Senator Levin said, repealing a provision that is not relevant for Russia, while also allowing us to make a new standard for Russia that is relevant for our problems we are confronting not just in Russia but throughout the globe. I wish to comment a little bit about Senator Levin's point.…”