Bill Keating

This is a great hearing. Between this committee and the Homeland Security Committee I am on, I spend a great deal of my time looking at issues of terrorism and it is a complex area.

We stand with them in solidarity of this recent and all too frequent loss of innocent lives in their countries.

It was disturbing when I saw the new PEW polling shows how drastically confidence in the United States President has eroded around the world.

I would hope that we speak with one voice in regards to our President not sending conflicting messages out about NATO and the EU.

Our prayers are with the victims of the shooting and the families that occurred yesterday.

This is indeed a major foreign policy decision.

I know that our witnesses both have scheduling issues on the back end of this.

I think I speak for all my colleagues this morning, it has been difficult through this hearing not to keep in our minds our colleague, Steve Scalise, and our other colleagues, the staff, and Capitol Police who were injured, and their…

Abortion is violence against children and it also has consequences in the negative for women.

I would just point out that a 32 percent cut to the State Department cannot be solely about cost savings to the U.S. Government when the defense budget is being increased by 54 percent.

The United States will stand with Taiwan.

There is a window of opportunity with South Sudan and Salva Kiir and his leadership to really put pressure on them to end this conflict.

We have to make sure that that food does not diminish. It needs to actually be increased.

We were told by the UNHCR's Regional Representative that the trigger was the 30 percent in the World Food Programme provisions.

We sell out the victims of human trafficking when we misappropriate a tierage, Tier 3 being the worst and say you are okay when they are not.

Resources are also needed to support our humanitarian relief and to support development.

If we do not lead in security and commerce as well as in values and in ideas, the vacuum will be filled by others.

For generations, America has been the leader of the world.

The American people will not let them win.

H.R. 535, the Taiwan Travel Act, would allow the President and Vice President, Foreign Minister, and Defense Minister to come here.

We won't allow high Taiwanese officials to set foot in this city, our Nation's capital, Washington, DC.

I think Russia is evolving its own position relative to North Korea and we are looking for more support from them.

But one of my concerns is the fact that as China might move away from trade opportunities to try and pressure North Korea, Russia seems to be creeping in replacing that vacuum.

I want to congratulate you on your work in that regard.

Would you support agency efforts to encourage neighboring municipalities to form regional partnerships in order to ease this burden?