I believe in a strong defense. We spend more than the next seven countries combined.

I would hope that if you are to be confirmed, you will make sure that the critical infrastructure of the United States does not fall in the hands of a foreign Government that has shown its hostility to the United States.

The nominees we are considering today are critical components of our national security and foreign policy, particularly in combating terrorism and implementing what I consider to be a peaceful tool of foreign diplomacy, including sanctions.

Are you committed to robustly enforcing the law in all of its elements as it relates to these sanctions, these different financial consequences that we create on actors that are adverse to the national interests and security of the United…

I sometimes get concerned that, in our desire to have good governance and rule of law, which I am a big supporter of, human rights, democracy, that we do not use, in pursuit of those goals, our economic levers sufficiently enough to engage…

Why does China, and for that fact Russia, make huge investments in a country like Venezuela who clearly is on a huge downward spiral economically, as well as in terms of civil unrest and human rights and democracy of its people?

I do not think it is for other neighbors in the hemisphere except for the United States.

The challenge is not just, in my mind, an economic one, but it is the influence that they extend undermining the very essence of principles that we want to see countries build.

I am glad we are keeping the subcommittee active, exploring the myriad pressing issues that we have in our own hemisphere even as we are challenged by events elsewhere in the world.

This body and, indeed, most of the headlines out of the foreign policy community often overlook our own hemisphere and, by extension, our closest neighbors and some of our most important allies.

I led in the Senate the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act of 2014 to prevent Hezbollah and associated entities from gaining access to international financial institutions.

I have always viewed a corollary to that is the better business practices that U.S. businesses bring.