Martin Hoke: “I rise with some regret because the time has been given to me so graciously by the gentleman from New York, who is not…”

“I rise with some regret because the time has been given to me so graciously by the gentleman from New York, who is not only a great chairman but he is a great marine. But I still nonetheless rise with no less resolve in opposition to this blatantly unfair rule. It is unfair because it does not permit the people's representatives to hear a tragic and disturbing story that they deserve to hear. It is the story of how defense contracts for military landing gear are being sent abroad; how American working men and women are sweating blood to send tax dollars to Washington so that we can send their jobs overseas; how the percentage of foreign landing gear contracts has increased from 15 percent in 1992 to 76 percent in 1996. These are the U.S. contracts for our landing gear. They have gone from 85 percent in 1992 down to 24 percent in 1996. How the American landing gear industrial base has been decimated as a result of that; how 77 United States cities had businesses with landing gear defense contracts in 1992 and how that has dwindled to 38 cities today, cities like Pomona, CA; Upland, CA; East Haven, CT; Sarasota and Stuart, FL; Wichita, Kalamazoo, New York City, Cincinnati, Dallas, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Oshkosh. How Americans actually are providing foreign aid to some of those governments so that not only can their citizens subsidize the stealing of American jobs but American citizens can subsidize that, too.”