Without getting into the weeds on the issues of the presidential campaign, the activities of Russia and the former Soviet Union to undermine democracy around the world have been going on for a long time.

This is certainly a timely topic to be talking about today as we consider the impact of United States assistance and contrast this with the foreign affairs budget for fiscal year 2018 which, as proposed, would significantly reduce our…

I want to commend both the chairman and the ranking member and this committee for keeping the committee focused on the importance of U.S. global leadership, effective partnership, and good development practices.

We must honestly acknowledge the failures of our foreign assistance programs, such as in a country like Zimbabwe.

It has been a vocal advocate for elevating development as a national security pillar equal to that of defense and diplomacy.

Yes, there are. And I think actually USAID has undertaken, in these last several years, a lot of those reforms.

I would like to commend the Chairman and Ranking Member for convening this hearing and for keeping the Committee focused on the importance of U.S. global leadership, effective partnership, and good development practices.

It is a great pleasure to be able to testify today especially with this distinguished panel who are really the practitioners of public-private partnerships.

Do you believe that there are reforms that can be made within the U.S. Government, USAID in particular, to help capture and effectively utilize the enthusiasm from these communities?

MFAN advocates for responsible reforms to increase the effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance programs.

This is the moment for the United States and Europe to negotiate the boldest, broadest trade and investment agreement we have ever contemplated since World War II.

It is very clear that the core of it, I think, is still there, and so in that regard, I think it is a good and a workable piece of legislation.

It is an unfairness that exists, and we hope that it will be corrected.

The gentlelady from Maryland--Connie--thank you very much for yielding to me. It is a wonderful privilege to be back with my colleagues, former Members, here today on the floor of the House of Representatives and especially for me to be…

So many of them have back home taken a position that it's not only, no, but heck no. We won't do anything that isn't border security.

If there is a positive outcome to it, it's probably going to be that, but it's going to be employers that are going to be saying we need to resolve this issue.

It's obvious that enforcement only isn't going to work.

We have the technology that can change that. But it's got to go hand in hand with the fact that people are going to come here to take these jobs.

The law as it written down as relates to employers is an unenforceable law because it says that employers have to have three pieces of documentation.

It's completely unrealistic, just unrealistic to assume that those people are going to leave with some kind of incentive that's being offered them.

That statement does not come from the administration. There is an individual with one of the think tanks here in town who has gone through this proposed set of criteria, proposed set, because it is not in the law, the proposed set of…

The Levin amendment would forbid expenditure of funds that would be used to negotiate free trade agreements that do not contain certain listed provisions. The listed provisions impose duties that are not now required by law and they make…

I do not want to allow some of the statements that have been made to go without at least understanding that there is another point of view here, that the facts are at least a little bit different. The statement was made that this Congress…

I do support the valuable work of the foundation and the fact that it promotes entrepreneurship, self-reliance, democratic principles, as well as the economic progress for the poor in Latin America and the Caribbean region. The committee…