Bob Menendez

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

I worry about the continued--when the bill comes due----and Maduro is not in power anymore, what China will demand of the future governance of the country.

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?

It is challenging when you want to have the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank promoting some critical core values in governance and rule of law opportunities as well as economic development.

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

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 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.

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 worry that there are some views that we can head in a direction in which we can dramatically reduce that foreign assistance and what flows from it.

I would hate for any of us to leave this hearing with the impression that somehow now or in the future, private businesses and corporations could take the place of U.S. foreign aid in development overseas.

As the architect of the Iran sanctions, I can tell you that that brought Iran to the table.

I mean, their interference has been almost purely ideological, driven by this phobia of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Now, has Iran violated the international order? I am not talking about the JCPOA. I am talking about its intercontinental ballistic missile testing, its pursuit of terrorism, actively its destabilization of the region, human rights…

Well, sanctions in and of themselves always cause some consequence, not just to the intended party we are trying to get to observe the international order, but to those who levy them because there is a degree of sacrifice.

Well, actually it is the case as it relates to Russia. You are far ahead of us in some very significant ways on Russia than the United States is on some of the more far-reaching sanctions that we have yet to employ.

We believe that when there is a flagrant violation of those principles, that should be sanctioned.

The transatlantic partnership is incredibly important to both the European Union and the United States.

I think that violence in Central America, the gangs, the narcotraffickers. If at the end of the day your choice is to stay and die or flee and possibly live, even if you are caught, you are going to make that choice.

I just want to make one observation. We got something that is impossible these days to get in the United States Senate on controversial issues, 68 votes for a comprehensive immigration reform.

I appreciate and I hope that our friends in Mexico got a very clear sense that there is a bipartisan different view about the U.S.-Mexico relationship than that which is expressed by the administration.

But inadvertently when comments are made in the United States by its leaders that ultimately are incendiary about Mexicans, it drives the poll numbers of its right wing candidate.

So shared responsibility should be a mutual goal I would think.

There is an extraordinary level of collaboration between the U.S. and Mexico to address terror threats.

The best way to deal with transnational threats... is together.