Political Quotes

“I come to the floor this morning to talk about an amendment I have filed to the National Defense Authorization Act, amendment No. 1708. This amendment would require the President to submit a comprehensive strategy within 120 days to promote U.S. interests in the Asia-Pacific region. This language or similar language was already placed in the House version of the fiscal year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act. The amendment would assure that the U.S. Government is effectively marshaling resources and employing a whole-of-government approach to implement an effective, multifaceted engagement policy in the Indo- Asia-Pacific region. This region will be vital to U.S. national interests for generations to come, and the administration's Asia pivot or rebalance policy was intended to reflect that. This is something the administration has talked about for years, this Asia rebalance or Asia pivot. But currently, the administration does not seem to have such a comprehensive strategy or approach that seamlessly incorporates U.S. military, diplomatic, and commercial activities to make the rebalance an effective policy. In April of 2014, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee released a report stating that U.S. Government agencies ``have not substantially prioritized their resources to increase engagement in the Asia-Pacific region.'' In fact, if we look at U.S. foreign military assistance, I believe it ranks somewhere around 4 percent of spending.…”