Bob Menendez

You recognize that the sanctions were a driving force at bringing Iran to the table.

We are never going to get the world to automatically say, 'Oh, yes, let us have sanctions.'

Is reauthorization of the Iran Sanctions Act that I and others were the architect of, as is, without any changes, reauthorizing it, and it expires in 7 months in an election year where we will be here very little, is such a reauthorization…

So you are telling me--and I will just stop here--that if we have major security ally, that somehow we would not be able to do things with because they violated the standards of the TVPA, that you would uphold the standards of the TVPA…

Part of what I think we are all trying to understand is how the amalgam of what you do comes to the conclusions.

Mr. Chairman, I just have a process question.

My understanding is that the Cuban Government continues to be an impediment to information gathering not only because of its resistance to cooperating with the United States but because it does not keep records on human trafficking and…

Voyeur magazine listed Cuba as a sexual hotspot of the world. So there is a lot of sex trafficking going on in Cuba, believe me.

This snapshot already happened. This snapshot of the mass graves already happened.

I do not understand how we include things that are favorable to a country but exclude things that are not favorable.

I remind my colleagues it was discovered at least 28 suspected trafficking camps, two mass graves, over 150 bodies.

The Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 includes a provision that I authored that requires the State Department to submit to Congress evidence to support upgrades to tier 3.

I had hoped the 2016 report--I know we are not there yet but--was going to be better, but I see some of the same problems that we began to see in the 2015 report.

It flouts international will, forget about U.S. will, in terms of its missile firings, including a missile that says, 'Death to Israel'.

I may not have agreed with the JCPOA, but putting that aside, I am not going to relitigate it.

I do not understand at a time in which we seem to be making Iran's case for it, we seem to be working toward helping them.

I would just say it would be ironic that Indian entrepreneurs and inventors would offshore their patents and then would not have their patent recognized successfully in their native country.

So you are suggesting there is a structural challenge in the way the Indian Government works between the provinces and the central government?

It would be my hope that with a strong push from Prime Minister Modi... the time is right for these dialogues to translate into action.

I believe that developing that bilateral economic relationship should be elevated to one of our highest bilateral priorities for the U.S. agenda.

I have heard from elected officials across my State of New Jersey... that access to the capital markets that they depend on... appears to be at risk due to unintended consequences of the SEC rule.

I was a fierce defender of it; I was someone who authored several provisions of it; and I have fought those who want to slay it.

The fact of the matter is if investors leave these funds and there is less demand for municipal securities, the borrowing costs for State and local governments will go up.

With this significant jump in tax-exempt yields, how is this going to impact the ability of State and local governments to finance infrastructure and economic development projects?

What we have allowed to occur is this is going to be settled in the manner that Russia and Iran decide it is going to be settled.