Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the leadership of Chairman Markey and Ranking Member Barton on this issue. I rise as the ranking member of the Trade Subcommittee on Ways and Means, not on the underlying bill, but on specific provisions. Specifically, I am troubled to see that this bill includes the controversial ``Buy American'' provisions that closely mirror the failed stimulus bill. It makes no sense to repeat provisions that have delayed deployment of stimulus funding, led to unnecessary cost inflation, confused local officials, and impeded the creation of American jobs, clogging, not priming, U.S. economic recovery. These provisions have also created serious concerns under our international obligations and invited our trading partners to adopt their own ``buy local'' laws, hurting our ability to sell abroad and harming U.S. jobs. In this global environment, it is not simply enough to buy American; we have to sell American throughout the world for American jobs and American workers. It's unfortunate we are repeating these mistakes. As this bill moves forward, I will continue to object and seek to strip these provisions out of the bill.”