On the recordJuly 31, 2001
The truth of the matter is while some people may think some of these concerns are trivial, the United States trade deficit is approaching one-third of a trillion dollars a year. A lot of people really do not look at labels. The Traficant amendment says if anybody has violated a Buy American Act, at some point they cannot get money under this bill. I do not even think that goes far enough. I think the people who buy for the Federal Government should look at the labels. If they are going to buy bulbs from China and buy goods made in Japan and continue to buy Russian-made goods and continue to give foreign aid to Russia, we might find ourselves some day arming ourselves in a possible war with one of these nations that we financed.
Source
govinfo.gov
