Ami Bera

The frustration that I have... is the President's failure to engage Congress.

The President's failure to engage Congress... but Congress will be here for a long time.

Look at Congress as an ally and share with the Administration that both Democrats and Republicans in a bipartisan way on this committee share that goal of trying to find a peaceful resolution here.

What we are looking at is a sustained commitment over years, if not decades.

I am glad my colleague from Florida, Mr. Yoho, brought up implementation of the bill. Back in as chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight we want to make sure it is implemented and rolled out in the most effective way.

What I worry about is the politics, and the politics of going from one Administration to the next.

Dealing with Putin today is very different than what Reagan was dealing with Gorbachev, who was trying to salvage a regime that was in decline.

I do not have an answer for you right now. And that concerns me.

My concern with the administration is Vladimir Putin is playing, if we were playing cards, he does not have a great hand that he is playing, but we keep folding our hand, so he keeps winning round after round.

I think the Russian people would be pretty interested in the large number of oligarchs that are worth over a billion dollars.

I think I would be negligent if I did not--as I have raised in private, we cannot do women's empowerment unless we are looking at access to reproductive health.

I have an amendment at the desk. The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment. The text of the amendment is as follows: Page 28, insert after line 24 the following: SEC. 108. ENHANCING CULTURALLY SPECIFIC SERVICES FOR VICTIMS…

I am prepared to close. My amendment would increase support for communities of color who face domestic and sexual violence in our country and allow them to access critical support services in a culturally appropriate context. Mr. Chair, I…

I think it is very concerning that there may be a lack of an interagency dialogue where our leaders at State, Defense, et cetera, are being consulted prior to these decisions being made.

I urge this committee to consider a markup of my legislation, the Prevent Crime and Terrorism Act.

the purpose of this hearing is not because it is the Trump Administration proposing the rule change.

If I could just comment on the ranking member's observation, that last observation.

I am so concerned about this Administration's plan to change our firearms export licensing system.

If Commerce is making the final decision on firearm exports, I worry that they will do what is best for firearm manufacturers.

If we are selling small arms to Canada, it is one thing. If we are selling small arms to Honduras, it might be another thing.

We ought not to put forward policies that will in any way export that very pernicious problem we have in America to other countries around the world and bring less stability and more unrest to places all over the world.

When we choose to export these weapons, we want to make sure that they are going to legitimate allies.

This committee would lose the ability to object to sales that raise national security or human rights concerns.

I urge my colleagues in the Senate to take this act up and send it to the President and I would urge the President to sign this because that is the message of this body.

I do think many of us are uncomfortable and disagree with the premise that we should pull out of NATO and even that rhetoric, I think, is very dangerous and sends the wrong signal to our friends and allies.