Joe Cunningham: “I truly believe that both under Republican and Democrat administrations, our State Department has been the weak link of…”

“I truly believe that both under Republican and Democrat administrations, our State Department has been the weak link of this country. While we have strong militaries, the American worker can compete against any nation in the world, but yet our trade agreements which I supported, NAFTA and GATT, they have been treated very, very poorly as far as the administration of them. Who ends up paying for that? The American worker, Mr. Chairman. If we take a look in which title XI uses $50 million, why was it created in the last couple of years? Under OPA 90 we wanted to build dual hull tankers. There is no money to build ships in the United States, because foreign nations have subsidized by billions of dollars and cut on the west coast. NASCO is the only shipbuilder left on the west coast. We only built one ship in this decade, because foreign nations, with their cutthroat economic tactics, have cut and killed the American worker. So we established it not only to help the environment, so we could build tankers, but to neutralize that system. In the meantime, while we build one ship, they build 100.”