Barbara Boxer

Mr. Chairman, thank you so much, Members of the Committee, nice to be here. I am honored to be here.

For me, getting them away from having to deal with Venezuela on their energy lifeline is a good thing.

Well, remember, the President only has a limited time, so----

So, just cutting to the chase, when will you have something for us to see on this?

That is just not what we do in life, or should not be what we do.

You are harassing them and intimidating them.

I mean, the word gets out pretty quickly.

Last month, Senator Rubio and I wrote to the Chinese Ambassador to the United States, urging the Chinese Government release five women's-rights advocates who were detained for planning to raise public awareness about sexual harassment in…

Our subcommittee has jurisdiction over a range of critical matters relating to U.S. foreign policy and national security, including U.S. relations with countries of the Western Hemisphere, as well as a global responsibility for democracy…

These hearings will help inform the committee's efforts to craft a State Department authorization bill, which is a top priority for our new chairman.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you for holding this hearing, and I want to extend a warm welcome to our distinguished witnesses.

I would call up Boxer-Markey Amendment No. 2, which would add a new section to the bill...

We are using existing resources. Now, the last, my memory tells me, and my staff says my memory is correct, we voted this bill out of this committee without a problem.

I look forward to having debate with the Republican party on science. I think that is a definite debate that needs to be had.

I am hopeful that you will accept this by voice vote.

I particularly thank the groups out there, the public health organizations, who were so strong that it forced the negotiations into a much better place than a lot of us thought they would go.

And if you vote no on this, I would say you need to answer to your constituents who say, Senator, why wouldn't you want to know what chemical is stored near my drinking water supply?

When all the dust settles and everyone has a chance to read this bill, without this amendment, there are no deadlines to act on a chemical that is dangerous.

The preemption question is still not fixed. We had a chance to vote on the Shimkus preemption which would have stopped the Federal Government from preempting the State until the EPA actually banned a chemical, and it was voted down by the…

This is simple. Just simple. And I beg you to think about it.

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

This amendment will protect contamination of drinking water supplies from chemical spills, such as the Freedom Industry spill in West Virginia.

This idea that you can't mention a chemical and you shouldn't have deadlines, that is coming, in my opinion, straight from the hearts and minds of chemical companies.

This is insane. It is just a joke. And it costs a billion dollars.

I will stand on my feet until I can't stand on my feet anymore, because I refuse to bend in the face of serious problems in a bill that is said to fix a broken law.