I am concerned, however, about, and very disappointed, that less than $13 million was requested for the Office of Cuba Broadcasting.

I want to thank you, by the way, while we are speaking of Cuba, for providing the $20 million for democracy assistance to Cuba, something that I think is desperately needed at this time.

I am always concerned about why is the regime in Cuba somehow treated differently than other places around the world.

Do you intend to maintain these sanctions and to continue to aggressively identify those subverting democracy in Venezuela or are hurting, you know, human rights, and, again, impose tough sanctions, continue the enforcement against those…

Do you support, again, sanctioning human rights abusers or sanctions against the military and intelligence services and those who deal with human trafficking in Cuba?

What is not debatable, I think, at this stage is that the Chinese regime held information, covered up.

Yesterday, the Treasury Department announced sanctions on individuals associated with the most recent crackdown of the political opposition in Nicaragua, and I thank you for that, Madam Secretary, and obviously urge you to continue…

Do you support these sanctions as well, and will you continue to enforce them and provide this subcommittee with updates on enforcement actions?

I have just never understood this double standard.

I know that you have difficult tasks, difficult tasks.

And I thank USAID and others for the work that you are doing there, and obviously it helps when you have a partner that wants to be helpful and has their act together, so.

I particularly remain concerned about China's active COVID-related so-called assistance programs globally.

And even though I think summits are going to be positive, the summits are not a solution, or summits are not a victory.

Let me refer to an area that is not quite as difficult but that USAID frankly has done, I think, a remarkable job, and that is dealing with the, you know, just this huge inflow of Venezuelans that have fled socialism in Venezuela and now…

I joined with some colleagues to introduce the Infrastructure Bank for America.

I look forward to working with you in the future.

now is the time to finally address major inequities that have led to decades of disinvestment

I'd appreciate your commitment to work with me and stakeholders to finally get the North Corridor project over the finish line.