Gregory Meeks: “Let me just say this. First, the debate on the House floor today is a rare moment where the House Foreign Affairs…”

“Let me just say this. First, the debate on the House floor today is a rare moment where the House Foreign Affairs Committee is debating legislation under a rule, rather than under suspension. For those who don't know what that means, it signifies that this bill is not bipartisan. That is in contrast to the great majority of legislation that comes out of the Foreign Affairs Committee. This is the first primary Foreign Affairs bill this year that we are debating under a rule this Congress. In the previous two Congresses, under the Democratic leadership, we debated a total of one bill under a rule. One thing I will say, as I have talked throughout this debate, one thing that is a fact is that Mr. McCaul is my friend. We always try to reach an agreement on all bills. There is no question about that. I am not questioning that at all. We are frequently, as we did yesterday, very successful. We had a completely bipartisan markup, including on a potentially game-changing bill that would codify an outbound investment regime to protect our economy and our national security. I would say that that is the way I do believe this committee is ran, and we work very closely together. On this bill is one of those times where I do fundamentally disagree with the arguments put forward by the majority. I submitted an amendment that would have added a national security waiver to the legislation. Such a waiver is a very restrictive standard.…”