Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to ask unanimous consent to discharge and pass the American Vehicle Security Act, a bill I introduced with Senator Braun yesterday. Let me explain what we are trying to do and what we have done by passing the IRA. China has cornered the EV supply chain market: 80 percent of the world's battery materials processing comes from China; 60 percent of the world's cathode production comes from China; 80 percent of the world's anode production comes from China; and 75 percent of the world's lithium ion battery's cell production comes from China. Now, for the first time in the history of this great country of ours, in the transportation mode that gave inspiration to the whole world-- whether it be cars, trains, and planes--did not depend on foreign supply chains for their motivation. It did not, in any way at all, depend on it. Now we are moving rapidly into the EV markets--and I think recklessly--as we were going into that before we were able to supply and be held captive by China, literally. So anything the IRA bill did was saying this: If you are going to get the $7,500 credit--which I had a hard time understanding why the automotive industry needed it so desperately, because people were willing to wait a year to get the product. And we had supply chains with chips, and we fixed that; we had supply chains still with this--and they are telling me: Well, we can't do that. We just can't get there. And I said: You know what?…”