Ben Cardin

The guidance from the IRS is absolutely critical in regard to the allocation issue.

Are you working to make the implementation of that law as smooth as possible, so that we can see some progress?

I want to move on to another bipartisan bill that passed in the last Congress with overwhelming support for retirement savings: Secure 2.0.

We have regular high-level engagement with our Brazilian partners.

Brazil is certainly a very important strategic partner for the United States.

Unless there are alternatives available for dealing with the needs, China sometimes is the only player.

I totally agree that we have to be more aggressive in providing incentives or alternatives on those who make their livelihood that impact on the Amazon.

I would appreciate it if you would keep me informed.

We provided $3 million in the fiscal year 2023 omnibus for you to conduct a low income water assistance needs assessment.

I appreciate the engagement you have had with our office. These are exciting times.

Technical assistance would be critically important. But also making sure the resources get to those communities.

We consistently get grades that are unacceptable.

One of the major parts of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law... was to direct your efforts to traditionally underserved communities.

I think that is a key point. We are talking about changing a delivery system and if it just is used as an addition and we do not really integrate it, it loses the reason why we are doing this.

I know that Senator Menendez, the chair of our committee, and Senator Risch, the ranking member, have been concerned about the relationship between DoD and State Department as it relates to the responsibility--this has been in foreign…

You might want to consider spending a little more time in Tennessee just as----

My hope is that you will accelerate your localization.

Part of that was training, that we felt that we needed to up our game on training.

Administrator Power indicates she wants that number to be increased to 25 percent over a 4-year period.

The local capacity is there and it is making a huge difference.

We want to make sure that we do not compromise the current tools that we have.

I just want to underscore the point that Senator Hagerty made about PEPFAR.

Thank you very much for your testimony.

We know Administrator Power has made this a priority for USAID.

I understand that choice, but it was, in my view, one incident and it has had significant consequences for how our development professionals engage in countries.