Political Quotes

“I come to the floor and I, like my good friend the Senator from Massachusetts, am very concerned about the lack of transparency in this whole process of the trade agreement, very concerned. I saw the TPP text. I went downstairs and I saw that. I have to say the whole process was extremely disturbing to me. Members must go to a classified room. Now, we do go to classified rooms, as a bipartisan group, on many issues that are very important to this country. I had gone down because I wanted to see for myself the transcript of the TPP, what they have dealt with and how far they are along right now in the negotiations. The viewing of the documents that are very technical in nature, as we all know, is oftentimes without a trade staffer with appropriate clearance. So here I am, I am not able to take staff--or only staff who has had secured clearance, and it might not be the staff on my staff who has the expertise in this, so that takes that equation away. We are unable to take any notes to consider what we just saw unless we have a photographic memory. Unfortunately, I do not. I have tried the best I can to remember and look for things I knew I was looking for.…”