I appreciate that, because as a result of our work in the aftermath of Sandy and the denial of many claimants, I think we came to a better process and a fairer process.

So, in essence, Mr. Chairman, what we are doing is we are paying ourselves interest on a debt that we have largely created in great part by the levee failures, $10 billion right there alone.

The problem is, we have also gotten very clear indication... that there will be an effort also to reduce imports.

I rise to join my colleagues in this important conversation on the Senate floor and, once again, to demand answers to the many questions raised about Russia's interference in our elections. Not so long ago, I came to the floor to speak out…

we cannot cede foreign policy decision-making to the Department of Defense or the Intelligence Community.

Airstrikes are not a policy. Intelligence-gathering operations are not a policy.

I do not quite understand it, is engagement with dictatorships that basically own everything and do not want to give it up.

I have been intimately involved and paying close attention to Venezuela for some time.

I have not found too many dictators that willingly, through engagement, give up their powers.

I think we must be clear in naming the regime... a dictatorship, because that is what it is.

I think, clearly, it allowed the Maduro government, it gave it some breathing room.

I believe in American exceptionalism in so many ways.