All Quotes

I welcome your indication of diplomatic vigilance with respect to provocations on either side and, certainly, violence, incitement from the Palestinian side, but also settlement expansion and evictions and demolitions from the Israeli…

You plan to start this assistance up again, both restoring some of what was withdrawn earlier, as I take it, and also responding to the needs from the latest conflict.

Certainly, yes, but we do commend your involvement. And there is a need to stay the course here and figure out ways to tighten the screws, if we possibly can.

I support the sanctions the Biden administration has already imposed on Burmese military officials and businesses.

There is just so much at stake in the faltering and struggling Afghan democracy surviving this period.

I am encouraged by your assurance that the aid that the previous administration stopped is now starting up again, and I encourage you to do that with respect to projects that had been approved and were receiving approval.

With respect to Gaza and the West Bank and the deeply destructive policies of the last administration, halting duly appropriated assistance funds to the West Bank and Gaza, closing the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, closing the PLO office in…

Of course, in many ways, governance is basic, basic to everything else.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and welcome, Ambassador. We are very happy to have you in this position and look forward to working with you in many, many ways.

We on this subcommittee learned the hard way in the last Congress how hard it was and how limited our tools were to deal with a summarily--and we thought unconstitutional--cutoff of aid to the West Bank and Gaza and also to the Triangle…

I have some personal knowledge of one of those programs. It involves educational work with autistic children with a school in Bethlehem.

I wonder what lessons we have learned by virtue of these freezes and now the attempt to unfreeze some of these programs.

That is very soon. All right. Well, thank you. So that work did continue.

So that third piece, the one on the Secretary's use of those funds, what is the likely timeframe on that?

It seems to me, from what we have heard and observed, especially in recent years, that we have a huge challenge of rebuilding back the prestige and the attractiveness of diplomatic service.

Are you really saying that the whole system is in trouble, and that we need to build it back, and presumably, of course, build it back better, as they say, so that we recruit and retain a much more diverse workforce?

Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for convening this hearing. Thanks to our witnesses for pretty convincing testimony, I must say, about the challenge we face, and the urgency of that challenge in terms of diversifying our diplomatic…

This is really an important issue from a standpoint of national security, from a standpoint of scientific advancement.