Political Quotes

“Madam Chair, my amendment would ensure that the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center under the International Trade Administration's budget is funded at this President's requested level of $15 million by moving $10 million from NASA's $4.2 billion exploration fund, which is funded $191 million above the President's request. Here is the problem: Mr. Peters and I, who offer this amendment, represent the State of Michigan, but I assume this problem, the problem of access to markets across the globe for American products, is one that other Members in this body experience on a regular basis and hear about all the time. We may disagree, and I suspect that we would disagree on the elements of our trade policy and particularly the elements in form that many of the trade agreements that this country enters into with other Nations. In fact, there is a debate brewing now over the extent to which we continue to expand those international trade agreements, but the one thing we ought not to disagree on is whether or not we enforce the existing structures that are in place and ensure that American-made products have access to markets that should be open to us and, under existing agreements, would be open to us if we had the strength and the resources to enforce those agreements the way they ought to be enforced, and this is having a real effect. I represent Michigan, as I said, and the auto sector particularly has suffered greatly as a result of trade practices.…”