Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman. I appreciate the opportunity to come back up here to talk again a little bit about this process. We were starting to talk about what had happened through the committee. There is a work group that was put together both in the last Congress and in this Congress that came up with some, I think, very interesting things: reforms. Included in the reforms was: How do we extract ourselves out of this? You see, here is what happened the last time. The last time the Bank was reauthorized, it was through a short- circuited system much like we are experiencing today. It did not go through regular order. It did not have all of the backing that it needed. It was kind of jammed down on everybody on the House floor. To let that smooth over a little bit, there was a requirement that the U.S. Treasury start a negotiation with the Europeans about one specific product: the wide-body aircraft. That is what maintains a vast majority of the business of the Export-Import Bank. But here is the thing: The U.S. Treasury ignored that directive. They ignored the law as they were compelled to go in and start talking about: How do we unwind ourselves internationally from this mess that has been created? Then, I think, there is a logical question to ask, Mr. Speaker: If they are willing to ignore that part of the law, what part of the law that we are trying to reform now are they willing to ignore?…”