Political Quotes

“I rise today with Senator Murkowski and our cosponsors to introduce the Trade Promotion Authority Act of 2001. We have stepped forward because we believe that international trade is essential to increase opportunities for U.S. producers, to support U.S. jobs, and to provide economic opportunities for trading partners who need development. Last month the Administration release its 2001 International Trade Agenda, which outlined the President's principles for renewed trade promotion authority, TPA. At the same time, I was working with a group of pro-trade Democrats to identify our key priorities. What we discovered is that our two sets of principles had much in common. Over the last few weeks, Senator Murkowski and I have worked together to translate those two sets of principles into legislative language. The trade debate has been virtually deadlocked for years, with voices from the ``end zones'' taking center-stage. In our view, this bill represents the basic architecture of a bipartisan bill on what we believe is the ``50 yard line.'' We also look forward to the contribution that others will make before this bill is signed into law. The fact that we introduced this bill with bipartisan support is particularly significant because this is not just a set of ideas that happened to be popular with both Democrats and Republicans. This bill took real compromise on both sides.”