Marco Rubio

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand in recess under the previous order. There being no objection, the Senate, at 7:36 p.m., recessed until Friday, January 25, 2019, at noon. ____________________

The decision to withdraw American -- an American presence in Syria is a colossal, in my mind, mistake.

The Chinese Government has long imposed harsh policies against unregistered Christian churches, Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners and other religious adherents.

I sincerely hope that I am wrong about the Sino-Vatican Provisional Agreement.

It seems to me that at the core of all this is an obsessive desire on the part of the Chinese Government...

None of them are forgotten.

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

An open letter signed by over 500 Protestant leaders inspires and should motivate each and every one of us to double our efforts on behalf of those who are fighting this repression.

I do commend the administration, particularly Secretary Pompeo and Vice President Pence, for speaking out forcefully.

Xi Jinping's war on religion is also a distinct challenge to U.S. religious freedom diplomacy and to international standards on freedom of religion.

That's not what I call it. That's what they call it. But in fact, it is something more nefarious than that.

I want them to know the best people in the world in disaster response are on the case.

I mean, they have no phone, they have no internet, they have no way to call 911 or getting anybody to come to them.

This is total annihilation of the system and it's going to take them a while to get going.

But that's a big deal, that the general public does not have access to each other or to information.

The state, Florida does this as well as anybody, because of the experience. Unfortunately it comes in handy in situations.

This is as bad as it gets in terms of power lines, property damage. The Mexico Beach thing may turn out to be a horrifying tragedy in terms of both the property loss. But I think the loss of life eventually.

The actions taken against these activists are a clear violation of their human rights.

The excessive concentration of power . . . particularly the first secretary, who takes command and sets the tune for everything.

The Chinese government must be held accountable for its actions against its own people.

The concern is always that in the end, the communities themselves may be the site of the investment, but not the beneficiaries of the investment.

I am a big fan of the Opportunity Zone concept, and I believe it gives an extraordinary opportunity to sort of create, in communities that have been forgotten in America, some of the same benefits that have driven investment overseas.

That was incredibly impressive.

The global economy is marked by pushing investment to maximize short-term gain, but Economic Opportunity Zones reduce that short-sighted incentive.

This law, which was championed by my good friend Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, will encourage investment in economically distressed communities.