Jim McGovern

You seized the opportunity, and I appreciate that very much.

This has been an extraordinarily helpful hearing in clarifying the issues.

We are talking about a delegate situation here.

It is never too late to do the right thing.

I want to applaud the Cherokee Nation for its decision to honor its moral and legal obligations to the Freedmen and their descendants.

I personally believe we need to find a way to honor our treaty obligations with the Cherokee Nation.

America's history with the indigenous people that are native to this land is atrocious. There is no other way to put it. It is appalling.

I dedicated myself to be an education advocate and push for hemp to be re-legalized in Wisconsin and in the United States through Hempstead Project Heart.

My path as an American hemp farmer is not linear.

The historical perspective of hemp played a large role in building our country during the early years of our democracy.

The best way I have educated the American people over the last 6 years on the difference between hemp and marijuana is an analogy of the pepper family.

Congress has had a long and abiding interest in Tibet.

If you want to do something constructive right now, you should re-enter the direct dialogue that you walked away from 12 years ago.

If you care about human rights, this has to be a central issue.

It's not up to President Biden, or it's not about what President Xi wants for Tibet.

Tibet's true representatives are His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile, as recognized by the Tibetan people.

I think that's changing. I really do. I mean, I look at the last few years here in the United States Congress. We have legislated more; we have created more policy on Tibet than at any other time.

We're very good at talking the talk; we're not very good at always walking the walk on these issues.

I believe that we in the United States--and, Mr. Tethong, I appreciate your kind words, but to be honest with you, we're not doing enough.

I think this is a very important hearing because in our discussions on Tibet, and some of the topics that we covered here today, we don't include the historical fact that Tibet has not been a part of China since ancient times.

Clearly a tremendous amount of change has happened in Tibet, for the better, because there is attention from the outside world, and especially the United States.

I hope the United States and other governments would counter directly the claims of some of these empire revivalists.

As part of that, there is a strong effort to rob the Tibetans also of their history, since that's also tied to their identity.

I just think it's important to establish a full record here, not only for the Commission but for my colleagues.

I think our position is that Tibet's true representatives are the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile, as recognized by the Tibetan people.