Political Quotes

“This initiative is a huge bipartisan initiative that is supported strongly by Democrats and Republicans. I think they will see as the debate goes forward that nobody thinks the bill is absolutely perfect in the sense that they don't as individuals agree with everything in the bill itself. Again, reflected in the comments we have just heard, if we step back, we are seeing an unprecedented commitment on behalf of this institution, the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Congress, with passage of a bill that follows the leadership of President Bush of $15 billion over a 5-year period. I especially appreciate the comments of the Senator from Massachusetts because, indeed, Senator Kerry and I have been working on this issue for years, in an apolitical way, in working with CSIS, which is a nonprofit group that all of us know, and we have brought in the experts from all over the world. They have done a beautiful job. We have sent delegations to China to look at the issue and broadly support it. I think that is what this bill is all about.”