Howard Berman

The legislation would 'detract from and undermine' their efforts to pursue U.N. reform.

I particularly liked what I thought was an eloquent critique of the piling on of mandates that the U.N. has adopted.

I would like unanimous consent to present a letter into the record of this hearing from the Foreign Minister of Israel to the Secretary of State regarding the U.S. efforts in UNESCO to prevent the adoption of five anti-Israel resolutions.

The bill savages nearly every program that protects the poorest and most vulnerable people: Humanitarian assistance for victims of natural disasters, Pakistan, Haiti--I could go on and on--slashed by 50 percent, massive cuts in refugee aid.

I do want to commend to my colleagues on the committee the speech that Secretary Clinton gave, in addition to her excellent testimony today.

It is absolutely to me insane.

We look at what is going on in Libya, Bahrain, Jordan, and Yemen, and are we going to keep in place a current policy that restricts USAID from providing democracy and governance support to NGOs that are not registered under the Egyptian…

The total level of reduction was purely arbitrary, plucked out of a hat, and totally unrelated to any thoughtful calculation of what was actually needed and how much it should cost.

With all due respect to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, the responsible approach taken in the QDDR to achieve cost savings stands in stark contrast to the Republican appropriations bill passed by the House 2 weeks ago.

Hondurans who fought for their Constitution and rule of law against Mel Zelaya's attack on their democracy are still suffering.

The Havana tyranny has again ramped up its assault against the democracy movement in Cuba.

The United States needs to condition its funding for the U.N. on real reforms.

Some of us objected to the normalization of relations with the Libyan regime, raising its deplorable human rights record.

It is simply a slash-and-burn process, with no consideration for all the critically important work that is being destroyed or how it undermines our national security.

At what point do we decide this was a good investment or a bad investment?

If retroactively you could undo the money that was spent to build the building, make that argument. You are right now trying to zero out the appropriation for the programs of an institute that Congress created through legislation passed in…

I plan to vote against this amendment. I want to just make two points: one, the gentleman from New York's argument is very good if, in fact, U.S. Institute of Peace was simply another think tank. If it were, then why shouldn't they compete…

It seems to me that in this frenzied competition to see who can cut the most and the fastest, we are losing all sense of reason and rationality. I am deeply concerned by what I see happening to the international affairs budget which is…

I respect that the gentleman is not saying they shouldn't exist. But this isn't a matter of whether or not they should exist. It's that we, by statute, decided to create them for very specific purposes. If you don't think this is worthy of…

the American job market hinges on a dynamic, open Internet.

El Salvador has been through incredibly difficult times, but it truly... has actually emerged as an anchor of stability in Central America.

On medical malpractice, I am a States' rights guy.

the FCC rulings on net neutrality are weak.

I think we need to be careful; at least my view is net neutrality means neutral as in anti-discriminatory and not necessarily a totally open net.

I want to just particularly express my appreciation that El Salvador is included in the President's upcoming trip.