Political Quotes

“nearly 7 years ago President Bush invoked emergency economic sanctions against Iraq for its invasion of Kuwait. Freezing Iraqi financial assets made sense at the time because it prevented Saddam Hussein from funding his war campaign. Now, we need to take steps to unwind the sanctions regime to permit payment to United States businesses who sold products to Iraq but have never been paid. Four years ago this month I introduced legislation--S. 1119, the Secured Payment Act of 1993--with 13 bipartisan cosponsors achieving that purpose. The bill clarified that certain moneys on deposit in United States banks belong to United States companies, not Iraq, and therefore should not be subject to the Iraqi assets freeze. Amendment language similar to S. 1119 was appended to the last State Department Authorization bill following a rollcall vote in the Foreign Relations Committee and approved by the full Senate. Unfortunately, the language was dropped in conference, leaving this matter unresolved. The legislation I am introducing today represents a compromise on creating a settlement process for private preinvasion claims. The Iraq Claims Act of 1997 I believe takes a progressive step forward in disseminating the $1.2 billion in frozen assets. First, it vests currently blocked assets in the President. Second, an Iraq Claims Fund will be created by the Treasury Department where those assets will be deposited.”