[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2199]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            PORT ACQUISITION

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, it is said that Washington does two things 
well, nothing and overreact. And both have been in high relief in the 
last week in our Nation's Capital.
  Americans learned just a few days ago of the approval by the 
Committee on Foreign Investment of the United States that a company 
owned by the United Arab Emirates had purchased the ability to operate 
ports in six major American cities.
  Those on the do-nothing side argued very quickly that the contract 
had been vetted in the CFIUS program, a 30-day perfunctory review. They 
argued that no more review was necessary, despite the fact that the UAE 
had been the home to the banks that funneled money to the 19 hijackers 
on 9/11 and, in fact, had endorsed the Taliban government in 
Afghanistan before that attack.
  On the overreact side, many in Congress, especially, it seems, 
Democrats in the Senate, called for a complete cancellation of the 
contract without regard to the fact that since 9/11 the United Arab 
Emirates has been a strong ally of the United States, providing a safe 
harbor for more than 500 of our ships to be refueled and readied.
  For my part, I joined those in Congress who called for a thorough 
investigation of this contract in the next month and a half and in an 
agreement reached this weekend between the administration, Congress, 
and the companies involved of a 45-day review to go forward.
  But in order for this contract to be moved forward, the American 
people must be absolutely certain that doing so will not compromise the 
methods and practices that the Coast Guard, Customs, and Homeland 
Security employ to protect our ports.

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