Ben Cardin

I will just give you another example. Your budget proposes to eliminate the development assistance account at USAID and the economic support fund at State.

I would just urge you that in regards to the Pickering and the Rangel fellows, that is one of the avenues that have been a bright spot for diversity within the State Department.

Did you change your view on that, or is this a matter that was just a political decision made by the administration?

But my concern is the train is leaving the station in regards to the appropriations bill and the authorization bill.

Well, understand Congress and previous Congresses have spoken on these by statutes.

I really believe that we did accomplish what we set out to do where we had initially 10 Democrats and 10 Republican Senators who had joined together in this effort.

I particularly want to acknowledge Senator Shaheen and Menendez who were very helpful in putting together this package.

This was a very challenging negotiation between the Banking leadership and the Senate Foreign Relations leadership.

We want to give you the authority you need to run your agency as efficiently as you possibly can.

Every minority community I go to, they mention to me Medicaid, and that there is no capacity at the State level to pick up the slack if the Federal Government withdraws its commitment.

I want to know about your commitment to deal with minority health and health disparities.

I have heard your commitment to make sure that you will do everything you can to help all people in this country get access to quality health care.

There is no question. But we have a strategic partnership that is important.

Yes, the Saudis are important partners in our campaign against ISIS, but they also have the Wahhabist ideas.

I am trying to figure out what the Trump administration's policy is in regards to the countries in the Middle East.

The Marshall Plan was really a turning moment for the United States.

The fiscal year 2018 budget submitted by the President... would also compromise our ability to deal with this.

The travel ban on Muslims obviously affects our ability to deal with this issue.

I have not heard the President articulate a coherent policy in this area.

The recent attacks, as the chairman pointed out, in London, Manchester, Paris, Melbourne, Tehran, is a reminder ISIS's reach is well-beyond just the countries of Syria and Iraq.

Yes, we have been successful in shrinking the self-proclaimed caliphate that started with a strategy under the Obama administration, is continuing under the Trump administration.

Shortly we will be voting on cloture on the nomination of John Sullivan, the nominee to be Deputy Secretary of State, and as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I urge my colleagues to support the cloture motion…

Is there something we can do at the national level to encourage States to meet their commitments on life cycles?

I strongly supported the flexibility for local governments.

Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware get along very well together.