Political Quotes

“I listened to some of the debate earlier this afternoon--in between the effort to make progress toward getting a fair array of amendments for both sides--about this whole question of secrecy surrounding trade policy. A number of Senators were discussing it, and so I just wanted to take a minute to be very clear that I think they have a very valid point with respect to the secrecy that has long accompanied these trade discussions. I would like to discuss how I made it my paramount reform to make sure we would have a new era of transparency, openness, and accountability in the discussion about making trade policy. I have always felt that if you believe deeply in international trade--the way I do--and you want more of it, why in the world would you be for all this secrecy? That just makes Americans more cynical about the whole topic and makes them think that in Washington, DC, there is something to hide. I note my friend and partner in all this, Chairman Hatch, is on the floor, and he will recall when we began our discussions--and they went on really for close to 7 months in our effort to forge a bipartisan package--that I wanted to take a very fresh approach with respect to transparency, and I wanted us to be able to say that for the first time in the history of debating these policies, we would no longer have the country and elected officials in the dark with respect to really what is at issue in these discussions.…”