John Kerry

Well, we need aggressive action. I mean, a lot of folks here, myself included, have been arguing that we need to get tougher.

We send a terrible message as we try to negotiate with people when we kind of pull things out and misapply them.

I think we are all, on our committee, pretty sensitive to the complexity of our relations with the Russian Federation.

There is a pathway here. There is an avenue. But we do need to increase the leverage.

We appreciate your efforts.

This really is a major opportunity for them to kind of move in a different direction.

I was an activist before I came here to be a Senator, and I vowed that I am going to stay an activist Senator.

There is no easy out. There is no way here that we are going to not continue to stay engaged and to be involved.

We had a roadmap. We thought we could have moved on some components of this.

The administration's policy and strategy is the right one.

This will be a chance to put this issue high on the radar screen of the two leaders.

The world cannot stand by, and certainly the United States could not stand by, and watch such a crisis unfold if the Government did not take action.

We have a unanimous resolution of the United Nations Security Council--China, Russia, all the rest--calling for immediate humanitarian access.

The administration has strongly condemned these unjustified and unacceptable attacks.

South Sudan in turn has the opportunity to avoid the corruption that has too often plagued oil rich countries, and it has the opportunity to create an inclusive government that embraces ethnic diversity.

We must not abdicate the important role the United States can play in helping to nurture the process just as we helped the midwife the birth of a new nation.

We continue to demand that the Government of Sudan immediately end aerial bombardments of civilian areas.

We are all here today because it is in the vested interest of the international community that those two countries become partners in political and economic stability, not volatile adversaries in an already troubled region.

Our committee, I believe, would fail the test of history if we allowed attention today to drift from the critical situation in Sudan and South Sudan.

Sudan must escape its fatal cycle of conflict, not as some next chapter in the Arab Awakening, but because it is the only way to forge a viable political and economic future for its people.

Make no mistake. It is the leaders in Khartoum and Juba who must choose between a future of conflict and poverty or a future of security and prosperity.

It was always a journey to hope and prosperity. That journey continues.

Cautious optimism may be appropriate given recent developments.

We are deeply troubled by the continuing violence and worsening humanitarian situation in the Nuba Mountains.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman for holding this important hearing on the NOAA budget for Fiscal Year 2013.