Chris Coons

Hopefully, this common-sense, no-cost bipartisan amendment will pass----

Thank you very much, Senator Udall.

I just want to thank you for your recognition that addiction affects every family, every community across this country, and we need to have a balanced approach, balancing law enforcement with treatment and with community engagement, and I…

In my view, the United States has to maintain the resources and flexibility needed to respond to other emerging security threats such as those in Iran and Somalia and specifically Yemen.

I am deeply concerned, as are other members of the committee, about Yemen, given the presence of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and recent political upheaval and other sources of instability.

I'm concerned about coordination, sustainability, the quality of the troops in some of the peacekeeping missions.

The recent violence in Abyei and Southern Kordofan, and the displacement of many, many people, remind us of the very real human toll of conflict.

While we all celebrate the establishment of South Sudan as the 54th nation in Africa, I remain concerned... about the path forward.

I think we ought to have a very firm timetable for addressing it, because otherwise it just lingers as a source of conflict.

That's why both the international community and the United States, in my view, must continue their sustained efforts to urge peaceful resolution.

That's why Senators Isakson, Durbin, Wicker, and I will soon introduce a resolution welcoming independence and congratulating the people of South Sudan.

I join my colleagues in thanking Ambassador Lyman and all the dedicated people who have worked so hard to make South Sudan achieve independence.

I would be interested in whether you can elaborate on where you see the interests of the United States and China overlapping with regards to Sudan and South Sudan.

I think it's started, because I think that the economic changes that the government has announced, modest though they are, hemmed in though they are by all kinds of restrictions, I think for the first time they involve changes that the…

I think that the way in which Humala governs will depend a lot on his circumstances.

But they won an election. So the challenge there for us... is how do we separate those two.

The most successful antipoverty program certainly in Latin America, but not just there, has been economic growth.

It is probably easier and more effective for the U.S. Government to work with and support the countries that already have constitutional democratic regimes.

Economic growth alone is probably not as effective as economic growth with sensible, well-targeted social policies.

I think other countries in Latin America will engage with that, and at some time the United States will have to think about in what way it could constructively engage with that.

That's different from somebody who's running and saying things we don't like, but ultimately is governing in an effective way.

Imagine how much worse off Mexico would be today, facing the challenges it faces, if it didn't have this democratic institution.

If I might, I think that particular provision within the act...may seem to have wisely reflected the inclination toward inaction rather than action.

I have real and growing concerns about the approach to the war powers issue, and in particular about the precedent that may be set here.

In the face of the atrocities committed by Qadhafi earlier this year, the United States I believe did have an obligation to protect the Libyan people from the very real threat of massacre.