Ben Cardin

I support the President's proposal to increase the budget of the Department of State and USAID by 10 percent.

I think it does raise questions as how you make those decisions.

I agree with Chairman Menendez's initial statements of how, over a long period of time, we have seen a decline in support for our Foreign Service officers in our diplomacy mission.

I believe it is now time for Congress to modernize the Foreign Service Act of 1980.

I would just underscore the summit. We all support the summit being held and the President's leadership on that.

We, in Congress, are looking at following President Biden's leadership to advance these values but we need to have in country the capacity to deliver on that.

We have also seen a decline within the mission's capacity to deal with the core values that make America the strong nation that it is in promoting democratic institutions and advancing human rights and dealing with anti-corruption measures…

The policies championed by Senate Democrats in the Paycheck Protection Program made later rounds of the Paycheck Protection Program more equitable and accessible for underserved communities.

National Women's Small Business Month is particularly important in my home state of Maryland, as it boasts the highest concentration of women-owned small businesses in the country.

We have been joined by Senator Cantwell.

We are optimistic. We are working very closely with the Biden administration, and we are together in our priorities.

The past 18 months of COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that women entrepreneurs still face many structural barriers when they start, operate, and attempt to grow small businesses.

We are going to make that one of the major centers of our Build Back Better budget that we are working on right now.

Your work has been incredible there on behalf of women, so thank you for your leadership on these issues.

I think partnering with our States is going to be critically important, particularly on the fish stock.

We are in desperate need of having a national standard based upon best science.

If we continue to delay these issues being regulated appropriately, it is going to be even more challenging in the future.

I do want to thank all three of our nominees for their willingness to serve our country and thank them for putting up with our nomination process.

I cannot think of anyone more superbly qualified to lead this than Dr. Locascio.

I just would urge us to think about how we can work in partnership to deal with these extreme raining events that are causing communities to be extremely vulnerable.

These types of investments really pay off dramatically, but there is also a change in the risk factors that I am seeing in our communities.

We also recognize that these storms are becoming more frequent and more severe and that we have a responsibility to deal with the realities of climate change.

Do you commit to engaging in meaningful consultation when policies are being developed, not just providing notification after the fact?

The developed world really needs to put its technology and resources behind the development of the developing world.

I have some preliminary questions that are asked of all nominees before this committee about the cooperation with our committee.