John Kerry

I hope we will put an infrastructure bank in place, reverse the course, strengthen America's competitive posture in the world, and give our citizens the economy and the quality of life that they deserve.

The truth is we are living off our grandparents' and parents' responsibility, sense of responsibility.

The fact is that I believe a National Infrastructure Bank is the essential way for our country to catch up to the enormous infrastructure deficit that we face in this country.

Rising economic powers around the world, our competitors--China, India, Brazil, Mexico, other countries--are all investing in their future, and they are all investing in their future much more significantly than the United States.

One of the biggest problems we have is, we haven't invested sufficiently in the infrastructure of rail overall.

I want the record to show that I did support you in committee on your captive shipper initiative.

We've got to think about this holistically, which we really haven't done.

This discussion of rail comes at a critical time for our economy.

I happen to believe that high-speed rail, particularly, but passenger rail, as a whole, and the improvement of our rail structure, including freight, is absolutely critical to our ability to transform the American economy.

The Congress initiated the so-called Kerry-Lugar-Berman strategy for Pakistan, which provides for as much as $1.5 billion of expenditure over a 5-year period of time.

I would advise a cautious approach to ensure that... the support of the United States Congress... is maintained.

I believe my colleague, Senator Lugar, shares that view.

Development is, in my judgment, the single most effective, important tool we have available to us.

The multilateral development banks have played a crucial and usually unsung role in fostering global development.

I am delighted to be joined by my colleague and partner in these efforts, Senator Lugar.

As the largest shareholder in all but one of the major multilateral development banks, we are obviously deeply invested.

The World Bank increased lending from $13.5 billion in 2008 to a record $33 billion in 2009.

Going forward, it is going to be important to address questions of how nations share power within these institutions.

I would love to see a lot more invested around the world in some of the things that are crying out for alternatives for some of those young people to spend their lives doing.

Even as these banks grow and restructure, they are going to have to do more to address 21st century challenges.

The President has made clear our intention to drawdown all combat troops by August 31, 2010.

This was an error for which we are profoundly sorry, and we are determined to learn all the lessons we can from our mistake.

I think, all in all, the opt-in/opt-out debate that we were all worried about has been resolved pretty effectively.

Is it used for any other--is it used for any commercial purpose?

So, how is it that people who have their information trusted to you--entrusted to you--what kind of confidence can they have?