Political Quotes

“there has been a lot of controversy in the last couple of weeks about the President's sending the Colombia so- called free trade agreement to the House of Representatives. Under this unusual law, there is something called fast track procedure. Fast track procedure--this is a lot of inside baseball--changes the way we do business in the House and Senate. Trade law is the only issue that changes the way that we do business. On no other issue that comes in front of the House and Senate, except the budget, are there limits on amendments, are there limits on required up-or-down votes, timetables-- all of that. The Senate rules do not apply on that legislation. It is the only time--in part because of who has written trade policy in this country in the last 20 years. We have seen trade agreements that always look out for the interests of the drug industry, look out for the interests of the insurance industry, of banking interests, of energy interests. But we have not seen trade policy written in this country, negotiated by the President of the United States, the U.S. Trade Representative, that has shown any of the same concern for workers, for the environment, for food safety, for the safety of consumer products. That is why we have seen what happened with all the toys that came into this country from China.”