Mark Meadows

The Goldman Act was passed by Congress was to give you additional tools beyond that soft diplomacy

The frustration becomes is--and the reason for the Goldman Act originally was the type of soft diplomacy that you have described.

I can tell you that the gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Connolly, and I have had a number of conversations as it relates to FITARA.

I was troubled to learn--I am one of those that was born a little bit earlier than what the chairman of the full committee had recommended, but I was real concerned to hear that we are still supporting COBOL and Fortran.

Obviously, in February, the GAO added the Federal IT management to the list of high-risk categories.

Are you willing to have us review that when we are not in a public forum with just members of both the minority and the majority looking at those split memos?

Wendy Sherman, who I have a great deal of respect for, admire, weighed in on 11 countries; is that correct?

So if your recommendation was only followed and not overruled, that is the way that I view it, being overruled, by people up the line, only out of 17 times you were overruled 14 times, would you say that that is indicative of people up the…

I am troubled by what I see is a manipulation for political purposes of the TIP Report.

I am troubled by the trend that I see.

We want you to succeed. But the other thing that Mr. Connolly and I and Mr. Hurd and Ms. Kelly, we don't want egg on our face.

Is that not a human rights abuse?

What message does it send to the world when we change the rating of Malaysia without really anything significant happening as it relates to human trafficking?

If $140 billion in sanction relief can't get one pastor out of Iran, how much will it take?

I mean, I don't know that there is any more of a poster face of religious liberty and what it is and what it is not other than Pastor Saeed Abedini.

But listening to your testimony, reconciling it with reality or perceived reality is very difficult to do.

We should make them a priority to offer the safe haven of the United States.

Unless we act, those people who represent a culture... will be wiped out.

America needs to lead the way on issues like this.

Delay is one of those things that everybody says we are working on it and the time is now for answers.

I am tired of coming to hearing after hearing after hearing and saying it is a high priority, it is our top priority, we are making progress where you got parents that don't believe we are making progress.

As a Member of Congress, where we talk about apathy, it doesn't get me votes to be for foreign aid in Africa generally in North Carolina.

We need to do a better job as Members of Congress, but we also need to do a better job of highlighting those areas where we can make a difference.

I firmly believe that further economic development of these countries and improvements in their health, safety, and food security will be directly tied to their acceptance of free and fair democratic process.

It is important that the truth be told and the truth is that with regards to the Temple Mount... the government in itself is not trying to change it.