My sense is that the increases that are in the administration's request for fiscal year 2016 are very well grounded and they reflect some very serious needs not only in the security area where it is plainly obvious that Tunisia is facing…

It will be important for us to provide that fiscal space for them.

I am a believer that we are starting to compromise NATO's open-door policy without a real, tangible plan for enlargement that includes Georgia.

you cannot have a military solution without a political component and political plan underlying that military action.

I think we can do more to give you that additional flexibility.

there are not military solutions to many of the problems we face in the Middle East.

The amount of money available to USAID and a larger sum to State has been declining to the point now where I think in 2015, it was about $160 million overall for DG and that is down from just 2 years ago being up above 230.

I think it is vital.

It sort of strikes me as if your neighbor's house is on fire, and, instead of just delivering them the bucket of water, you sit and negotiate with them for a period of hours on the terms for the repayment of that water, instead of just…

I think if we could talk about how to provide the Agency with greater flexibility, that would be of enormous value.

One of the issues that we talked about, which I would love to hear your thoughts on in open committee, is the issue of flexibility.

I think that we should be doing everything possible that we can to encourage them and to help them along that path.

Larry Summers just wrote a column, in which he said that the case for debt reduction with respect to Ukraine is, 'as strong as any I have encountered in the past quarter century.'

We cannot relent. And you are going to be going to a country that has some misgivings about automatic renewal.

Is this something that you think you are going to be spending time on, or should we just let it lie and not worry too much about it?

We are having a debate here about what constitutes our national security budget.

I just wanted to get your thoughts about the way in which USAID can be built more tightly into the overall national security infrastructure.

Having spent $800 million there, it would be a shame if we relatively nickel and dimed them such that they could not run an appropriately funded election.

I worry sometimes that we are asking the Ukrainians to make economic reforms in the middle of an invasion that are simply unrealistic.

It strikes me that the backstop to the visa waiver program is the no-fly list, is our ability to determine who should and who should not be on these flights.

over the course of the last year and a half, I have come down to the floor fairly regularly to tell some simple stories about victims of gun violence all across the country. The idea is that if the overwhelming data of those killed through…

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Islam

I come to the floor to talk about two topics that often make this body and sometimes my side of the aisle uncomfortable. I want to talk about the fight that is on across the world--or particularly in the Middle East for the soul of Islam…

The European Project was an American project.

It is clear that we need a stronger European pillar within the alliance, but we will not achieve that by ceding leadership of the alliance or passing the baton to the EU.