Good morning to our witnesses, colleagues, and guests who are convening the subcommittee today to discuss the FY24 budget request for the Middle East and North Africa.

A Court that’s already pretty illegitimate is going to be in full crisis mode.

one of the benefits of sitting in the chair, as the Senator from Maine is currently, is you get to hear a wide variety of views from our colleagues. And I have had the opportunity over the past several weeks, while sitting in the chair, to…

I also share your sentiment, Mr. Chollet, that so far we have not seen a lot of progress on either side.

We are not asking Kosovo to change their constitution, but let us be clear, in other circumstances in the region, there are changes in constitutions necessary to preserve peace.

We will not accept, and nor we support, anything that remotely resembles a Republika Srpska.

I share the chairman's concerns about Serbia's pensions to make commitments that often are not made good on.

That is why ASAM strongly supports passage of the Parity Enforcement Act, which would finally add civil monetary penalty authority to the DOL's oversight.

We can talk about expanding our sanctions, but two, we can just talk about elevating this question of Russia lifelines with our friends.

There is a question of whether Ukraine can ultimately carry the cost of this war for as long as is necessary.

There is a burden that Ukraine needs to bear in waging this war. It cannot do it on its own financially or militarily.

And as you pointed out, Donald Trump is advertising every single day what an irresponsible choice he is.

Joe Biden was intimately involved in that process.

The only leader who says, 'We are going to light the American economy on fire if we can't get an agreement in the next ten to 14 days,' is Kevin McCarthy.

Well, if we want to get serious about deficit reduction, then you have to put tax increases for billionaires and corporations on the table.

And this narrative that Republicans are spinning is just their best argument against him because they can't argue on the merits, they can't argue on the policies that he's passed because he's had one of the most successful policy agendas…

I think Americans know that it's Republicans, not Democrats, that have been sitting on the outside when it comes to fixing our broken immigration system.

So, despite my tough words for how Republicans approach this issue, I think there is still an opportunity, at least in the Senate, for bipartisan immigration reform.

I think there’s going to be a popular revolt over that policy.

And, and what Joe Biden reminds us that elections are not a referendum, they are a choice.

If we want to get serious about deficit reduction, then you have to put tax increases for billionaires and corporations on the table.

For all of these Republicans who are complaining that the president acts outside of his authority, in this case, they seemingly want him to violate the law and turn people around at the border.

The president has not been sitting on his hands, like Republicans would allege. The president has actively – has been actively engaged in trying to manage this crisis.

the amount of money that Russia and China are spending on propaganda unfortunately dwarfs the amount that we are allocating to fight misinformation.

the amount of money that Russia and China are spending on propaganda unfortunately dwarfs the amount that we are allocating to fight misinformation.