Bob Wise: “the bill that has been under consideration on the floor of the House for the past few hours has been dealing with the…”

“the bill that has been under consideration on the floor of the House for the past few hours has been dealing with the defense of our Nation, and no one in this Chamber would think of unilaterally disarming our country militarily. So why is it, then, that the Republican leadership now proposes to eliminate in the budget debates coming up during the next 2 days the Department of Commerce and so unilaterally disarm us economically? Because this Department of Commerce under, first, Secretary Ron Brown and now his successor, this Department of Commerce has been turned into an efficient juggernaut advancing U.S. interests here and abroad economically. Mr. Speaker, if I were a business leader in this country, a small- or mid-size business leader particularly, but also a CEO of a large corporation, I would be very, very concerned about this move to take the one agency in the Federal Government that has become very effective at promoting U.S. commerce and jobs and exports and dismantling it and eliminating some of its functions and shipping some of the functions off to other agencies and departments where there is not a smooth fit.”