Political Quotes

“I will be very brief. I know we have an 11:45 vote scheduled. I urge my colleagues to join me in advancing the nomination of Judith Pryor as Vice President of the Ex-Im Bank. I appreciate the ranking member of the committee's comments about her qualifications. She is clearly qualified. What we need to always remember is our foreign competitors operate more than 100 export credit agencies and credit programs supporting our manufacturers. As if our policy has not been stupid enough as a country--PNTR with China, which caused the hollowing out of community after community in southwest Virginia and in my State and much of the area throughout the Midwest--China's export finance activity is larger than all of the export credit that G7 countries collectively provide. China will continue to use export credit to win manufacturing businesses in critical sectors. In Ohio, we just lost two more light bulb manufactures, LED manufacturers. The light bulb was invented by an Ohioan, Thomas Edison, in a New Jersey lab. We used to lead the world. Now, 99 percent of LED light bulbs are made in China. Does that not teach us something? How about semiconductors? We invented semiconductors. We only make about 10 percent of them in the country right now. As First Vice President of Ex-Im, Ms. Pryor will help lead the Nation's official export credit agency as it supports workers and manufacturers throughout our country.…”