Political Quotes

“I wished to respond to my colleague from Arizona on a couple points. I rise in opposition to his amendment. I think there is a lot we agree on, based on the remarks he gave about making sure the program works and is efficient and delivers results for taxpayers. I don't agree with eliminating the program in this case. I appreciate the words he said about trade adjustment assistance and his recognition that workers are going through a tough time right now. This amendment is a disagreement about what we do about firms. In this case, it is pretty simple. We have trade adjustment assistance that helps individual workers, and I think there is a lot of agreement on that. This particular program is about individual companies. Basically, what we are talking about is 265 firms in the country. The average quantum of assistance is a little more than $62,000 per firm. Part of that is as simple as having an expert come into a company--because of foreign competition and I would say unfair foreign competition--and helping them with their process, being able to produce a product in a more efficient way, changing an assembly line or giving advice in a way that a company is not able to figure out on its own. It provides that technical assistance. The other part about this is, it is an effort to make sure these firms can better compete in a very tough environment, frankly, that has often been undermined by trade agreements. That is my perspective. I know some don't share that.…”