Political Quotes

“we awakened this morning with the news, confirmed, that major steps are going forward in connection with this very important issue of the ports. I use that generic term, ``the ports,'' because it relates to a transaction that has been thus far approved by the administration whereby a company, owned by the United Arab Emirates, will be engaging in terminal operations in a half dozen or so of our terminals here in the U.S., having acquired those assets from a British firm which has been conducting those operations for some time. I am very pleased that the leadership of the Senate--notably my distinguished majority leader, with whom I have been in conversation in the past 72 hours--is taking a leadership role. I hope the other side shortly will speak to their role in bringing into focus the importance of this issue and facilitating the several committees of the Senate to have hearings, briefings, or otherwise acquire the facts. Last week, I believed it was imperative that a certain amount of facts get into the public domain as quickly as possible. On short notice, I held a briefing--in contrast to a full hearing--a briefing by the Senate Armed Services Committee and the principals, basically the Deputy Secretaries of the various departments and agencies which have the primary responsibility within the group of 12 of the organization known as CFIUS, or the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States.…”