Political Quotes

“I rise today to introduce the Counterfeiting and Money Laundering Deterrence Act of 1994. The purposes of this legislation are twofold: First, it will bring our $100 currency up to date with the rest of the world and stop letting counterfeiters have a free meal ticket. Second, it will put the squeeze on drug traffickers who have to launder vast sums of money to operate--making their costs of doing business significantly higher and hopefully turning piles of their money into worthless paper. The currency of this country faces a serious challenge from new technologies that enable counterfeiters to turn out excellent reproductions. According to the Secret Service, overseas counterfeiting of U.S. currency has increased dramatically. For example, from 1992 to 1993, it increased 300 percent. Just 2 weeks ago, the Secret Service made the largest seizure of counterfeit instruments in its history: 4.1 billion dollars' worth of fake Japanese governments bonds. Other analysts believe the threat to the U.S. currency is urgent. News reports say that intelligence experts in the United States and Israel are aware of a highly skilled group of counterfeiters operating out of Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. These counterfeiters, controlled by Syria and Iran, have turned out as much as $1 billion of extremely high-quality reproductions of the U.S. $100 bill.”