Political Quotes

“I thank my colleagues. Yes, the amendments do satisfy my concerns. The amendments to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) approved by the Senate today, to implement in the United States the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, are an important achievement in ensuring fair play for American companies doing business overseas. The value of this legislation for U.S. business fully justifies the action we are taking today. However, there are provisions in this bill that are unrelated to implementation of the OECD convention. I would have preferred a bill that did not contain these unrelated provisions, principally embodied in Section 5. The House earlier passed S. 2375 with an amendment making significant changes to language addressing the treatment of international organizations providing commercial communications services which had earlier been contained in Section 5 of H.R. 4353 as reported by the House Commerce Committee. These changes reflect an agreement between the House and Senate Commerce Committee leaders. It is my understanding that the House Commerce Committee report accompanying H.R. 4353 addressing Section 5 of that bill is not germane to the interpretation of section 5 in light of the significant changes made therein.”