Political Quotes

“I thank my good friend, the distinguished chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Royce, for his leadership on this important bill. I thank Eliot Engel, the ranking member, and, of course, Senators Corker and Cardin. This is a true bipartisan piece of legislation. I thank my colleagues for their leadership on this. Mr. Speaker, a highly skilled group of Foreign Service Officers-- about 15,000 strong--are deployed worldwide to promote peace and human rights, to support prosperity, and to protect Americans while advancing the vital interests of the United States abroad. For most, posting overseas requires serious personal sacrifice. For some, deployment entails serious danger--from disease, crime, and terrorism. Mr. Speaker, after the American Embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi were attacked by terrorists in August of 1998, I chaired hearings on Embassy security in my subcommittee and authored the Admiral James W. Nance and Meg Donovan Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 2000 and 2001 to significantly boost Embassy security, including reconfigured Embassies, setbacks--a zone that puts the street farther away from the building--and additional diplomatic security personnel. The bill, dubbed the ``Embassy Security Act,'' which passed the House in 1999, never even got a vote in the Senate; but after much lobbying, my bill was included in its entirety in the FY 2000 appropriations omnibus.…”