Political Quotes

“Mr. President, let me say, with regard to this legislation, I have supported free trade probably more than my colleagues. I believe in the Andean Trade Agreement that is a part of this. I support the trade assistance that is in the bill and would be glad to remove my objections to them if they wish to move forward with that. But I have worked for 2 years to try to obtain a simple justice to close a loophole in the tariff laws that has impacted and will close a sleeping bag textile manufacturer in my State. It is in Haleyville, in Winston County, AL. It is in northwest Alabama. It is a poor county. They have a great history. They call it ``the free State of Winston.'' They claim they seceded from the State of Alabama during the Civil War, and most of their public officials from then until today remain Republicans. But they are an independent, hard-working people. This bill, as written, will close that plant, and it should not happen. I want to share with you the Chamber of Commerce, NAM and the AFL-CIO have been made aware of this, as we have discussed it over the past years, and they believe this company should receive some relief. But the people who put the bill together did not. And I am very much of the belief--I know my colleagues are--that when you have good people in your State who are being put out of business by a company that was moved to Bangladesh to try to capture this loophole--it is not a little matter. These are human beings. As I said, I do believe in trade.…”