Political Quotes

“I am a cosponsor of the Harkin amendment, along with Senator Grassley and Senator Lincoln. This amendment was offered last night. We had a discussion of the amendment at that time. The issue presented by this amendment is whether the bill, as taken up on the floor of the Senate as it relates to energy-efficient ratios of air-conditioning units, should be adopted by the Senate or another ratio that would provide virtually the same amount of efficiency but at a lower ratio and leave in place production plants that are producing coils for air-conditioning units on the market today and the entire air-conditioning units to continue to function. Let me give a parochial example of the implications of this issue for my State of Mississippi. There are over 7,000 workers employed in facilities that produce either components for or total air-conditioning units. One plant employs 2,500 people in Grenada, MS. Our amendment allows the use, sale, manufacture, and use by citizens of air-conditioning units with an energy efficiency ratio of 12. These are numeric. The bill before the Senate requires a ratio of 13. If the committee bill is adopted, or the bill before the Senate--the committee didn't have a whole lot to do with writing this bill, incidentally--if the bill before the Senate is adopted without amendment to this section, that plant at Grenada, MS, will shut down and those 2,500 workers will be out of work.”