Bob Menendez

I would expect the administration would take a position that would say unless we have a different set of realities, the administration would be urging us not to extend it.

I am not confused by the Argentineans. I appreciate your diplomacy. The Argentineans send a very clear message.

I believe that was the largest number of cases that the Nicaraguans have resolved in any year since.

I am not quite sure that we send the right message.

The Ortega government, which has joined with its ALPA partners to consistently criticize the United States and regularly abuses the democratic process to advance its own agenda at the expense of the Nicaraguan people, did not deserve the…

An American foreign aid program or trade agreement is a seal of approval.

Latin America obviously is a region of strategic importance to our country, and a prosperous and democratic and stable Western Hemisphere is crucial to our own safety and our own prosperity.

I urge the administration to take even bolder steps to consolidate our relations with similar democratic nations in the region.

In El Salvador, Argentina, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, we are seeing a disturbing reemergence of authoritarian elements in the legislative and the executive branches of government.

Is the administration basically advocating for those extensions?

If we have the rules, the regulations, the laws, and even if we give...vigorous sanctions at the end of the day so that people get the message this is not simply the cost of doing business.

The reason that Barclays enters into a consent agreement is they did something wrong.

This was known to entities going back into the Bush administration.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, thank you for your service and your testimony.

We can do more about Iran Air, which is still able to fly to many places around the world and is used by the Iranians to transport weapons and personnel for a whole variety of nefarious purposes.

And if that information flow, which is obviously not going to come from the Iranians since there is not really a free press process in Iran--if that information came from surrogate broadcasting like our Voice of America efforts and…

We are all very concerned about a nuclear Iran.

I believe this effort will further squeeze the Iranian's economically in this mutual pursuit of having them deterred from their path toward nuclear weapons.

I hope that more of our allies will recognize this reality and work to address this threat posed by Hezbollah.

The United States should continue to support the Iraqi Government as it resists undue influence from Iran and fights terrorism within its borders.

So, the question is: Is there a way to enhance, I mean you mentioned some of the Web sites, are there other opportunities in which we can get, you know, financial aid departments to be more robustly engaged in saying here is the ability…

Well, as someone who has been a strong advocate in a different context of being able to allow mortgage borrowers to refinance at historically lower levels, it seems to me that we should find the wherewithal to be able to achieve this, have…

Does the Bureau have any ideas or suggestions as to either how we create greater market competition or greater inflows of information for individuals so that they can exercise their rights?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

It seems that this is an industry that on its own will not work with the integrity that the public deserves.