Political Quotes

“Madam President, nothing of the sort is going to happen. The fact is, we have had nothing but delays by the President. Just a few weeks ago he was accusing us of not passing the free-trade agreements when he knows we cannot even consider them. There have been a lot of games played with us. I remember last spring in our committee when the Trade Representative said: We have a few more things we have to work out on Panama and Colombia, and we will definitely send these free-trade agreements before the August recess. We got near the August recess, and they said: Well, we need one other thing. We need trade adjustment assistance. Now, if they need trade adjustment assistance--and I have no doubt that is going to pass in the Senate if there is a fair process. I do not believe there is any doubt it will pass in the House. The agreement worked out by the distinguished chairman and Chairman Camp over in the House probably will be voted on. I have to vote against it. The fact is, all my amendment--it does evidence some distrust in this process. All my amendment does is say: Look, we are not going to allow trade adjustment assistance to go into effect until these three trade agreements are sent by the President and passed. Both bodies can pass the trade adjustment assistance on this bill, and that is fine with me. My amendment says TAA does not go into effect until the President submits these three treaties, and they are passed and become law. Then trade adjustment assistance goes.…”