Ben Cardin

Let's help the people who have been damaged, the communities that have been damaged.

I want to compliment our emergency responders. They did an incredible job.

You've been a real champion on the Federal Government's partnership and responsibility during these disasters and we very much appreciate that very much.

We've got to invest in resiliency. We have to invest in mitigation.

I join with Senator Mikulski in urging this subcommittee to do everything we can to help bring people back to their normal lives and protect our communities from the damages of these more frequent severe storms.

I will not take 3 minutes. The point I am bringing up is that what this would do is impose an additional cap on civilian and contractual. They are already controlled by law. The law says by mission and budget. That is what it should be…

Let me just point out the civilian workforce is going to be cut. According to the House Armed Services Committee, over 10,000 positions will be eliminated in FY12 alone. The House bill does not contain this provision. This provision…

I call up amendment No. 3025. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report: The assistant legislative clerk read as follows: The Senator from Maryland [Mr. Cardin] proposes an amendment numbered 3025.

People living in remote areas, not easy to get to, without power, extremely vulnerable to their public safety.

Thank you so much, not just for convening this hearing, but for your leadership in dealing with these issues.

Sandy was a devastating storm; 80 lives lost as a result of the storm, 7 in my State of Maryland.

Maryland fared much better than our surrounding States. We sent a lot of our resources to help our friends in New York and New Jersey.

The amount of high sustained winds was unprecedented in our State.

I think the points you raise are very important points.

Going forward, having an open trading system is going to be more important than ever because we are going to have to move areas that are producing a surplus in food to those that have the deficit.

We fully understand the more that we can get prosperity in a country, the better chance we have of good governance.

If we cannot effectively get aid, we have to be prepared to leave rather than to help finance a corrupt regime.

Senator Lugar and I have joined together on a transparency initiative to make sure that the wealth of a country goes to its people and does not to feed corruption.

Chairman Cardin and Ranking Member Corker, thank you again for holding this important hearing and your continued work and partnering with the administration, we know that FtF can help address food insecurity, one of the greatest needs of…

This will not be the last of our interest in overseeing how this program is working.

There is strong support in Congress on both sides of the aisle to deal with global food security.

Thank you very much for your testimony.

I would like to thank Chairman Cardin and Ranking Member Corker for calling this important hearing on U.S. Global Food Security Efforts.

Their policy was pretty clear. They will not be there. If the aid cannot get to the people, they are not going to feed the corruption of local officials.

We anticipate that hot areas are going to get hotter, that wet areas are going to get wetter, that it is going to hurt those countries that are most vulnerable right now to chronic hunger.