Ben Cardin

We are puzzled. We have gone through 12 years where the FBI, GSA, intelligence community have all said that the FBI needs a facility to not only meet its current needs, but to meet its needs in the future.

We want the FBI to consolidate in its most efficient ways, and we understand that some of the functions may be better performed in other locations.

The President's budget continues to show its commitment to minority health by requesting $281 million for the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

The cuts you point out do not signify a lack of commitment by this Department to minority health issues.

If we put too much of a strap on the Medicaid program, we are going to jeopardize long-term care for our seniors.

We do not really have a long-term care policy in America.

I disagree with the budget on the Medicaid cuts and the basis behind the Medicaid cuts.

I would just caution on another area in regards to the budget and imposing some additional costs on emergency care, which turns out to be non-emergency conditions.

I think together we can be more effective. We want to make sure you have the resources that you need here and are able to deal with the mission that we believe in: reducing disparities in our communities.

I was disappointed to see that where we have put newer resources into NIH--and I support that strongly--there was a reduction of resources at the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities and a reduction of resources at…

I want to talk about a few issues in the President's budget, following up on some of our conversations from your confirmation hearings and discussions that we have had.

We need someone in your position who is going to understand the sensitivity to small businesses, what happened in the 2010 disaster, but what could happen again if we do not protect the vulnerabilities of small businesses.

Let me point out, in the last Administration, the person that held that position, at times, was very much against the Obama administration's regulatory policies, and we appreciated that independence and we expect that from this position.

I just need your commitment that you are going to be guided by the role of your position and exercise that independence.

I would hope to have the opportunity to meet with you and/or your staff to understand your viewpoint on this.

I would say first of all you have mentioned the importance of independence, and I agree that the Chief Counsel needs to be an independent position.

The reason why we have a Committee on Small Business is because of the importance of small business to our country.

Under Senator Shaheen's leadership, the Democratic members are very proud of the way that we were able to work with our Republican colleagues in the best interest of small business

I personally thank her for some legislation that I worked on, that she found a path forward so that we could get that accomplished

The work that she did in regards to the women's economic empowerment, tackling the gender gap with women entrepreneurs' need to thrive, to me that is a blueprint on what we need to do as a Nation to close the gender gap

The bottom line is, we all have a responsibility to protect taxpayers' rights and to protect the taxpayers' dollars.

Clearly, we all have a responsibility to be very sensitive to small-business owners who do not have the same capacity as large companies to understand and comply with laws.

The administration will continue to press China to guarantee fair and reciprocal treatment for all U.S. companies, provide greater market access for U.S. exports and firms, and implement market-oriented reforms to reduce our trade deficit…

While we welcome China's November 2017 announcement that it will begin to remove ownership restrictions and provide national treatment for foreign firms in its financial services sector, we are concerned that China has not yet implemented…

It is a really big deal around here when we get a vote of 517 to 5. That is unprecedented in these times to get that kind of vote.