Political Quotes

“Like my colleague from Texas (Mr. Thornberry), I rise today in disappointment, and I congratulate the ranking member and the chairman. But in his opening comments, the chairman spoke about last week's NIE on Iran as the best of times; and, clearly, we all take heart in the possibility that Iran has put aside its program to develop nuclear power for weapons systems. It's an opening we need to vigorously pursue and cautiously monitor. But I would argue, Mr. Speaker, this is hardly all good news because it also, in a less noted part of the report, talked about what we missed. It confirmed that they had an active program. It confirmed that that was going forward, and it confirmed that it happened without our knowledge, and many of the shortcomings that made that reality come about are contained in this bill. There were a number of reasons for that failure, but some, sadly, are reflected starkly in this bill. And, indeed, for all of its good intentions, for all of its considerable effort, this legislation is sadly an example of high rhetoric that clouds stark reality.”