Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Madam Speaker, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko) has been a leader on our agenda of Make It In America. It is a jobs plan which has included reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank as a way of helping our businesses and workers compete on a level playing field internationally. Since the bank's charter expired on July 1, many small- and medium- sized exporters have been left without a critical resource, forced to compete with foreign companies that have the support of more than 80 foreign export credit agencies. Uncertainty over the bank's future has already led businesses to announce jobs being moved overseas. My friend from New York talked about General Electric moving hundreds of jobs from his district and other districts as well. Jeff Immelt, the president and CEO of GE, was here. He talked to Democrats and Republicans and said: You are hurting American jobs. Yet, we do not have the Export-Import Bank reauthorization on the floor even though, Madam Speaker, it enjoys a majority support in this House. We have heard a number of very sound arguments for why Congress ought to pass a multi-year reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank without further delay. One of those, Madam Speaker, came from Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue, who wrote on September 17--this is the Chamber of Commerce president, not Steny Hoyer, the democratic leader. He said this: Every major trading nation has an export credit agency like Ex-Im. . . .…”