Bob Menendez

While I do not revert to sanctions automatically, in a limited arsenal of peaceful diplomacy tools, it is sometimes the most significant thing you can do.

Assad must go because he is a mass murderer.

There is really no room to sit and negotiate with Assad for a transition toward democracy.

The French Foreign Minister called for additional sanctions to counter the authoritarian solidarity being provided to Assad's regime.

Syrians want freedom. They want democracy.

There is no other country around the world that is disarming. They are increasing.

I am a supporter of the Export-Import Bank, but I just want to press its importance and its relative size compared to other countries.

The failure to reauthorize the Bank amounts to America's unilateral disarmament in the face of other Nations' aggressive trade finance programs.

What Khamenei obsesses about is not U.S. hard power or U.S. military action, it is U.S. soft power and this idea of a soft or velvet revolution.

Khamenei was very cynical. He said that this is an iron fist with a velvet glove on it.

If he thinks, as you described it as behavior change, that we simply do not believe that for the world and our own national security interests and certainly in the region that having nuclear weapons in a country that has so much oil and…

If they, meaning the Iranians, have the intent, all the weapons in the world are not going to change that.

How can the Choice Neighborhoods serve as that platform?

Choice Neighborhoods ultimately will create jobs, having a ripple effect, attracting a variety of State, local, and private investment

It seems to me that that is a pretty sad reality. We should live in a Nation in which the happenstance of what zip code you live in is not the determinant of where you will end up in life.

This Administration deserves a lot of credit.

I strongly encourage and support the bill and encourage you to do so as well.

I really appreciated your testimony. I think you presented an honest and sometimes taboo tidbit about community developers...

My bill works to try to break those silos down.

Now, in your testimony you referred to leveraging, which I appreciate. In that context, can you explain the importance of partnerships to the success of Choice Neighborhoods.

All Americans should enjoy equal opportunity and access to affordable housing in safe neighborhoods.

Three-hundred-fifty million dollars spread over the United States for distressed neighborhoods is a drop in the bucket.

It is a multi-trillion-dollar market. It is a market that I do not believe presently would be absorbed under the present system.

Obviously, community banks are seeking an extension. They believe it would be very helpful.

I remember years ago, with a different set of witnesses, well before the housing market had its tremendous dive, I said we are going to face a tsunami of foreclosures.