Political Quotes

“This entire document, which we have briefed to the administration, and which I have given to Senator Levin and Senator Lugar and have talked to Senator Biden about on the phone, will be presented to our colleagues in a formal context after we have had a chance to make some modifications and changes. We have also presented this initiative to the White House, to the Vice President's staff, to the National Security Council, the Defense Department, and the State Department. Truly, it was a landmark opportunity for us, a historic opportunity, to change the direction in our relationships with the Russians. Mr. Speaker, the other activity that we did on this trip, which grew out of the September 11 incident, was to try to find a way to further support our President to build an international alliance that would work together on terrorism. To that end, we drafted a piece of legislation, had it translated into Russian, faxed it over in advance of our trip, and asked the leaders of the Duma, which is their congress, to consider passing an identical bill to one that we have passed in the House. This legislation calls for the creation of a joint task force on terrorism involving Members of the House and the Senate, the Duma, and the Federation Council. Our Russian colleagues were very much supportive, indicated that they could pass such a measure in 3 weeks.”