Political Quotes

“I yield myself 3 minutes. I rise in opposition to the gentleman's amendment. The amendment cuts the Bureau of Industry and Security by over 6 percent. What does that mean, because it does not sound that it is that significant? A cut of $5 million to the Bureau of Industry and Security would severely diminish efforts to deter weapons of mass destruction proliferation, would prevent sensitive dual-use items from falling into the hands of terrorists, and enforces the anti-boycott laws of the United States. Some think that the Bureau of Industry and Security is actually too weak, and I may be in that category. American industry is being hampered in the international marketplace by the long processing time of export license applications. This amendment would roll back the progress that we have made in reducing the average processing time from 44 days to 32 days since 2003. With additional money we could probably get that down. The trade deficit, the trade imbalance, this would really create a greater problem to deal with that. Quite frankly, I do not think this administration has done enough to deal with the trade deficit, the trade imbalance. So to take $5 million from the Bureau of Industry and Security would severely diminish our ability both on looking at weapons of mass destruction and technology and also hamper American business at the very time when we are urging them to sell American products abroad.…”