Political Quotes

“Today, as the House considers the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act of 2005, I respectfully submit the following statement into the record in order to raise awareness of an issue that I have found most distressing. For over three years, I have been working on behalf of a company in my district, Pennsylvania Ship Supply Inc. (PA Ship) to resolve a financial dispute with a Ukrainian entity, the Black Sea Shipping Company (BLASCO). PA Ship is a company that provides ancillary services to ships at ports around the world. My office has been working on behalf of this company since June of 2001, although PA Ship's problems with BLASCO began much earlier. In 1996, PA Ship provided services to the BLASCO ship m/v Sosnogorsk in the amount of $17,242.44. Shortly thereafter, BLASCO filed for bankruptcy. To this date, PA Ship has yet to receive payment for the services it provided BLASCO. This matter is made all the more alarming by the fact that BLASCO is a state owned company. My office has made numerous attempts, through the Department of State, to resolve this issue. Unfortunately, the government of the Ukraine has been either unwilling or unable to provide much more than contact information for the Director and Deputy Head of the Ukrainian State Department of Sea and River Transport. Further inquiries from the U.S. Embassy to these agencies in the Ukrainian government have been ignored. I find this lack of concern on behalf of the Ukrainian government unacceptable.”