Our values make us sympathetic to your plight, and, when it's convenient, we might officially express that sympathy.

Human rights exist above the state and beyond history. They cannot be rescinded by one government any more than they can be granted by another.

We are a country with a conscience. We have long believed moral concerns must be an essential part of our foreign policy.

To view foreign policy as simply transactional is more dangerous than its proponents realize.

Thank you, Senator Murphy. Well, we made it. I think you acquitted yourself very well, Mr. Secretary.

I'm excited about your review of the State Department, your listening and taking action to make it a more efficient place.

Threat-based budgeting is the way to go, you're dead right.

This budget is just driven by an arbitrary number. It comes out of OMB, but it basically is a result of increasing military spending.

We're going to cost-plus contracts have been replaced by fixed-price contracts. That's been a hell of a fight, but it's going to save money.

I do not understand how you can cut soft power by 29 percent.

We cannot sit on the sidelines and watch the State Department be seen as retreating at a time when we need more soft power, not less.

Even after all those reforms, you just need more soldiers out there in the fight.

I think this budget will cost influence, we're going to lose influence, it's going to put lives at risk.

We will continue to lead international development, global health, democracy and good governance, and humanitarian efforts.

I look at these as an integrated problem, not as simply one item here or one item there.

The U.S. administration's decision to shift FMF assistance to Tunisia in fiscal year 2018 to loans effectively places an undue burden on Tunisia.

Cuts of the magnitude proposed would be a disaster for America's long term security that rest extensively on the strength of our diplomacy.

The proposed cuts to public diplomacy and educational exchanges seem to us similarly misguided.