Political Quotes

“I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy. You have heard and you will continue to hear how important it is to pass this legislation to level the playing field for the United States and our businesses that seek to do business with Russia, one of the 10 largest economies in the world. This provides us an additional tool to make sure that our friends in Russia play by the rules. Now, while one of the Presidential candidates talked about Russia being the greatest geopolitical threat to the United States, I think it's clear that times have in fact changed. The relationship between the United States and the former Soviet Union has been dramatically altered. Russia is an opportunity for us--it's a challenge. We have differences of opinion. There are issues that we, frankly, need their cooperation. There are others that we're pushing back a little bit. But it is far better to be engaged in economic competition and cooperation to help build those bridges. Speaking of bridges, I think it's encouraging to watch the debate on this floor today. It's been my pleasure to be involved with a variety of them over the years, but this is one where there is commonality, where there's consensus, where we're working together to move forward. I hope this forms a pattern by which we will be able to have future success in critical, thoughtful trade policy crafting in the future. The American economy needs it.”