Political Quotes

“Members of the House, many moons ago, it seems like a decade ago, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Bryant] and I joined in a bipartisan effort to bring together the varying registration laws that were on the books, both for foreign commercial enterprises and governmental enterprises and for the same side of the domestic issue in registration, and then we joined, we on a bipartisan basis in a bicameral, bipartisan grouping, to try to bring some sense into the lobbying registration issue in our country, and I must say, when we proceeded on this pathway we felt proud of ourselves in crafting a pretty good product to present to the Congress of the United States and to the people. Even though we even left some cracks open, we believe, even in foreign registration and in domestic registration, nevertheless it was a good product. For instance, one hybrid situation arises even today. Suppose a trade association has as part of its clientele two foreign governments that are involved in a multi, multifaceted trade association. Should they not register under our proposition in the FARA, in the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or under the domestic commercial registration? I believe that registration under the domestic would be enough, but the presence of two foreign governments in a hundred trade association kind of grouping might require FARA. We have got to clear all of that up.”