Charles Rangel: “I rise on the floor because there have been so many people in my constituency that are wondering about why did I vote in…”

“I rise on the floor because there have been so many people in my constituency that are wondering about why did I vote in support of China going into the WTO, and at the same time we all are complaining about our failure to abide by the rules. {time} 1020 I want to make it abundantly clear that we're in the same situation. Sandy and I, it was a profile in courage almost to support China, and we have consistently supported our position as most people are supporting the committee's position and the Congress' position as relates to allowing Russia to assume the responsibilities of joining the WTO. While we have no guarantees that she will abide by the rules, at least we do have that she recognizes that there are international rules. For those people that are just monitoring the behavior of the People's Republic of China, we have to realize that in order to get people to cooperate and to find some discipline in international trade, they have to join. This goes a long way in making certain not only that we create the jobs and improve commercial trade with Russia, but also it encourages the administration now to see what works for the great United States, what really works to improve the quality of trade between all nations, and it gives us another tool to work with. So I want to thank Sandy and the chairman of the committee for working together as closely as they have, and Mr. McDermott.…”