Political Quotes

“I will not take the full hour. But I do rise to discuss a matter of vital importance, following the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), on issues relating to national security. There are some in both parties who are concerned that, perhaps, we are rushing to try to create a new legacy for this President on foreign policies relative to our policies with China and Russia. As someone who spends a great deal of time focusing on both of those countries as a senior member of the Committee on Armed Services and Chairman of the Committee on Military Research and Development and co-chairman of the inter-parliamentary dialogue between Russia and the U.S., I am extremely concerned about not just our relationship with China, which I will have more to say later on this week and next week relative to the NTR vote, but specifically to our relationship with Russia. Mr. Speaker, we all know that the first week of June the President will take an historic trip to Moscow, where he has been asked to address the Duma, which is kind of an historic event, an American President being asked to speak before the lower house of the Russian Parliament. I applaud the President for going to Moscow. I am concerned, however, that the election of Putin as the new President of Russia saw him take his first trip not to Washington, not to the West. But his first trip, in fact, is to Beijing, where he is, in fact, engaged in a series of high-level meetings with the leadership of China.”