Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by thanking my friend from Washington and my friend from Tennessee for organizing this exceptionally important discussion tonight. I think the case, from a national standpoint, in terms of maintaining the Ex-Im or the Export-Import Bank, is really almost uncontestable. It is not a new institution. It has been around well over 80 years. It is not a unique institution. As has been mentioned here on the floor several times, literally dozens of other countries have a similar tool in their toolbox to facilitate exports. It has not cost the American taxpayer a dime during the course of its existence. It has actually made billions of dollars back, indeed, since 2007, $2.8 billion last year alone, a billion dollars extra to the United States Treasury. What it has done and what every American ought to be interested in is it creates thousands and thousands and thousands of jobs for our fellow Americans competing in the international marketplace. Now, I can talk about some big companies that have a presence in my State that have been enormously well served by the Ex-Im Bank. Boeing aircraft, we have almost 3,000 Boeing jobs in Oklahoma. That is important to us, and we are very proud to have them. Halliburton, historically founded in California, headquartered now in Texas, but their largest machinery production facility is in my district in Duncan, Oklahoma--1,500 jobs. Those are real Oklahomans going to work.…”