Political Quotes

“I appreciate this opportunity to speak on this bill. First, I am the co-chair of the Cement Caucus, along with Congressman Mike Ross of Arkansas. My district is the largest cement producing district in America. I have a town in my district called Cementon. I have a high school team called the Konkrete Kids. This is what we do in my district in large part. I have five cement plants, Lafarge, Buzzi, Keystone, Essroc, Heidleberg-Hanson, Lehigh Portland cements. I have a company that manufactures and constructs cement plants, FLSmidth-Fuller. This is a big business where I live. It's an important business, the basic industry and the manufacturing to the industrial sector of this country. These three rules that we are dealing with are going to have a dramatically negative impact on cement production in America. Foreign imports currently make up more than 20 percent of total U.S. cement sales, and that number is going to grow if these regulations are implemented. Many of these foreign producers, as has been pointed out by some of the previous speakers, do not operate with anything close to the types of regulations that we are talking about here today, whether they be in Europe or Mexico, China or elsewhere. And as has been stated previously, close to 20 percent of all cement production facilities in this country are likely to close as a result of these three rules. What are they?…”