I think the African people are very intuitive people and appreciate the fact that we are investing in their future.

Do you have the ability in your paperwork that is executed on the loans to stop funding of a loan if in fact you discover corruption between the time that you originated the loan and when you began distributing?

U.S. firms remain sorely underrepresented in the region compared to our competitors.

One of the things that really is an encumbrance to United States investment of U.S. companies in Africa is the corruption issue.

A significant portion of United States direct investment in commercial activity in Africa is in the extractive sectors, is in oil and gas.

the way the government transitioned and the Vice President was sworn into the Presidency within 6 to 8 hours and they had a smooth transition of government was a real testimony to democracy in Africa and John Mills' commitment to that.

I thank Senator Alexander for the recognition and for joining with Senator Blunt in this colloquy. As I was listening to you talk, I thought back to what happened in my family Sunday night. I want to start my remarks with that. My wife…

We are trying to move it forward. We are kind of a hostage right now to a couple of situations which hopefully we will be released without harm.

I appreciate retransmission allowing me to be able to subscribe to cable and see those shows on TV.

The best way to get all the facts on the table are to have hearings like this.

I thank the distinguished Senator from Mississippi. I rise to talk about something I know something about, which sometimes in the Senate we do not do very often. I ran a small business for 22 years. I worked in a small business for 33…

This is an industry that means 10 million jobs $1.3 trillion in total economic activity, and 5.2 percent of the gross domestic product for our economy in 2009 alone, the last year we have data to measure it by.