Chris Van Hollen

I hope in the coming weeks we can have a sober conversation up here about the budget and deficits.

I really hope, Madam Secretary, that we won't do that.

The first act of the House under new leadership of Speaker McCarthy when they repealed the Inflation Reduction Act, according to CBO, that would increase the deficit relative to where we are today by $114 billion, right?

Whether you make spending cuts, whether you make revenue increases, people can have a healthy disagreement on that front.

Where the money is in uncollected taxes is in very wealthy, wealthy folks who are not paying their taxes on time, right?

During the 4 years of the Trump Administration, Congress passed the debt ceiling increase three times without a lot of drama.

One quarter of the total accumulated national debt was incurred during the 4 years of the Trump Administration.

The President's budget, President Biden's budget reduces the deficit over the next 10 years by $3 trillion relative to if we did nothing.

Thank you, Madam Secretary.

I look forward to doing that and hopefully we can get it passed on a bipartisan basis and support accountability in the system.

I know President Biden has called upon Congress to change the law so that we can hold executives accountable.

I give you and the Biden Administration, the FDIC, and others, high marks for the way you responded quickly and decisively to the Silicon Valley Bank default.

The United States of America pays its bills on time.

I think we need to do more than chipping away.

You can't do this on the cheap, and you can't do it with rhetoric and no resources.

It is absolutely nuts to account an equity investment as a PEER Grant, nobody in the private sector would think that makes any sense.

In my view that represents a retreat around the world at a time that we need to be more engaged, not less engaged.

In order to make sure that we discourage poaching, and we discourage wildlife trafficking, we need to make sure that local populations have alternatives.

I represent the State of Maryland, and the Chesapeake Bay is an example of an ongoing restoration effort.

The U.S. Government, the Biden administration, has spoken out strongly when other countries attempt to pass laws that clamp down on civil society, including through NGOs.

Let me also applaud you and the Biden administration for your help in providing human rights and other assistance to folks in the West Bank in Gaza under very, very difficult circumstances.

But it seems to me that we look very weak when we continually make statements without any kind of consequence.

What are we prepared to do when we see violations of those commitments?

I just think it is going to be really important that we have in place a specific plan with our partners so that we are ready to go, and that China knows we are ready to go, because the deterrent effect of that, I think, depends on their…

We need to make sure our allies and partners are on board.