Political Quotes

“I thank the ranking member for yielding. I don't want to fall into revisionist history. I was one of the Republicans who signed the discharge petition against my own chairman and against my own leadership in 2014 and supported the Ex-Im Bank. I would love to be here this afternoon to be supporting a bipartisan bill on reauthorizing the Ex-Im Bank. We had a bipartisan bill in June, and it wasn't the Republicans who walked away from it. It was the Democratic majority that walked away from it. The bill was marked up on a party-line vote in the Financial Services Committee. I think it is really important to note that we will reauthorize the Export-Import Bank in the appropriations process, and many of us support that. We do not want a lapse. But this bill is going to the Senate where it goes nowhere. And the administration has said they would veto it. Let's not pursue a partisan vehicle here. The Rules Committee had an opportunity to allow for some amendments that would have addressed some very important issues, including one from my colleague from Arkansas (Mr. Hill) that would have stopped China from stealing intellectual property. They chose to block consideration of those amendments. Ex-Im reauthorization is now, unfortunately, tied to the appropriations process, and I think we all know that. I want to reiterate that my fear is that we are needlessly moving forward with a party-line vote, or a mostly party-line vote, on something that has and should be bipartisan.…”