Chris Smith

I was literally moved to the side so I wouldn't be able to have access to him.

Though NYU offered him important sanctuary, he was, in my opinion, treated very rudely at times.

Are U.S. colleges and universities compromising their images as bastions of free inquiry and academic freedom in exchange for China's education dollars?

I want to thank both Congressman Chris Smith and Congresswoman Doris Matsui for their leadership and the introduction of this legislation.

I would also like to thank Representatives Chris Smith, Doris Matsui, David Jolly, and Chaka Fattah for their leadership in introducing H.R. 2820.

H.R. 2820, the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act, introduced by Reps. Chris Smith (NJ) and Doris Matsui (CA), reauthorizes the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005.

Of course, we are monitoring the situation in Europe very closely, and we certainly take energy security of our allies very seriously.

There is, clearly, a lack of political will on the part of the administration to do exactly what it should have been doing according to the law passed by Congress.

There is no other option but for the State Department to designate Vietnam as a Country of Particular Concern.

The government is using its law to further suppress religious activities in Vietnam.

Thank you all for your extraordinary testimony, which we will make sure that other Members of Congress hear it.

I will certainly be against TPP if they include a Communist dictatorship as one of the countries we should treat as friends.

We should be open until they make the steps first.

I am just afraid that we are back in the same situation again with the Vietnamese Government's promise to respect the workers' rights, to form or join independent and free labor unions.

So we hurriedly took Vietnam off that list and immediately there was a brutal bloody crackdown against religions that we have documented through pictures--actually, the violence against people of faith including religious leaders.

First time, shame on you. Second time, shame on me. Third time, are we being foolish? Are we naive?

The deceit that you speak about, and all of you might want to speak to this, we have been here before.

The persecution of prisoners of conscience in Vietnam is systemic--that it is ongoing, it is pervasive and it is part of the system.

Vietnam is it. Both on the labor trafficking point of view as well as from the sex trafficking point of view.

We want deeds and the deeds are not there.

We need to use our leverage to try to compel their release.

I agree with the commission's conclusion that Vietnam should be designated immediately a Country of Particular Concern because of its egregious record of suppression and repression of human rights.

Let me point out to my colleagues that when the State Department removed Vietnam from the list of Countries of Particular Concern as a gesture of good will, which I opposed in 2006, we once again saw backsliding.

I would say, for full disclosure, voted against the fast track legislation, believing that human rights have to be a centerpiece.

If human rights issues are not explicitly linked to our economic and security interests, we risk having discussions on trade and defense moving forward while human rights conditions go in the opposite direction, backwards.