Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, I want to reiterate, again, that I appreciate the engagement from my colleagues on these matters, and I would be happy to work with them on ways to modernize IEEPA or increase oversight of the President's authorities, but this is not the way to do it. Passing this joint resolution would seriously hinder our ability to fight terrorism in Africa and allow criminals like Mr. Bout to operate more efficiently. That absolutely should not be the message that Congress sends. I hear often from my colleagues about the need for regular order. We had a whole discussion on it as a conference in our rules: regular order. This should be going through the Foreign Affairs Committee to have regular order. By introducing a privileged resolution, this is bypassing regular order. It is bypassing the work that all of us collectively as 435 Members of Congress have to do. Now, I would remind my colleagues that these declarations are renewed every year by the President, including President Trump, who did it four times. Annual reports come to Congress every year. They come to the Foreign Affairs Committee of which I am a member. There are no additional spending authorities tied to these national emergency declarations. They cost about $300,000 a year to administer. I would remind my colleagues that we cannot sanction American citizens. It is unconstitutional. We are sanctioning foreigners.…”