Political Quotes

“while the Strengthening America's Security in the Middle East Act is clearly far from perfect, the majority of the legislation addresses several key priorities that are particularly important to me: formalizing long-term security aid to Israel, supporting our Jordanian allies' fight against the Islamic State, and sanctioning the Syrian financial system over the Assad regime's human rights abuses. These provisions represent important measures to concretely support our allies and address serious national security concerns. The legislation as a whole also preserves Obama administration international agreements that promote regional security while providing the Trump administration with more tools to levy sanctions against human rights abusers in the Assad regime in Syria. I also strongly oppose the BDS movement. However, I have long had concerns about the Combating BDS Act and similar legislation, which could be interpreted to change longstanding U.S. policy towards Israeli settlement activity and could have negative implications on domestic freedom of speech protections. Those concerns are rightly being litigated in Federal court. This bill does not protect a state or local BDS law from being challenged in court by an individual on constitutional grounds. While this was among the more difficult votes I have taken, ultimately the national security and other benefits of the entirety of this legislation could not be ignored or passed up. ____________________”