Adriano Espaillat

Thank you, Madam Chair and Ranking Member Rogers for allowing me to testify during today's hearing to lay out what I feel are my priorities as they relate to the State Department and related agencies.

These programs, obviously, cost money and this current administration continues to repeatedly send to Congress requests for deep cuts

Violence and illicit trafficking in Latin America and the Caribbean has become a more serious problem and I think that it deserves further attention from the U.S.

Yet the appointment of an individual who was criminally charged for lying to Congress seems to particularly be irresponsible.

Despite his attempts at reassuring us, I am still particularly worried about his involvement in our efforts to support the people of Venezuela.

It is time that we put pen to paper, roll up our sleeves and convert bold ideas into actionable policy changes.

I support the spirit of the Green New Deal and I cosponsored the nonbinding resolution because we must acknowledge that bold action needs to be taken to address this century-old trend that threatens our world.

In order to adequately address this crisis, we must aggressively tackle the root causes, the risks, the economic impact and public health hazards that climate change poses.

I think there is a consensus in Congress that would agree that climate change is a national security issue.

I think we all would agree that the DoD is perhaps the largest fossil fuel consumer in the United States.

In 2018, in the Defense Authorization Act, Congress directed the Pentagon to come back with a report on the impact of climate change on military operations.

I am very distressed to see what is occurring in Venezuela.

We cannot continue to be the policeman of the world.

Some have characterized it as being perhaps like appointing Exxon to lead a discussion on the Green New Deal or maybe even appointing MBS to lead a discussion on fairness in journalism and accessibility to journalism.

I think that we can say today that probably all, if not most, of the members of this committee are really concerned with the violence in Venezuela, the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela affecting thousands of families that has led to an…

We take, obviously, our responsibility to ensure that Federal housing programs give people an opportunity to achieve the American Dream, we take that serious on this committee.

Thank you for continuing your bipartisan work in this committee.

That is troubling that an agency as important as the SBA that deals with small businesses... does not have the infrastructure to respond to language needs of your clients.

Unacceptable, Mr. Chairman. Unacceptable.

As the sole representative for the District of Puerto Rico here, I want to thank the Small Business Committee...

Just in a few weeks, our President will be meeting with Vladimir Putin.

We want to support new entrants and the 10-point criteria in category management in a spirit meant to be a tool for greater inclusion of industrial base entrants.

They are eating our candy in Latin America and the Caribbean; there is a vacuum of leadership there.

But I am concerned that in the Western Hemisphere, we sort of turn our heads and we've been a little bit too complacent and maybe even abdicated our leadership role in Latin American and as a result all these bad things have happened.

Intellectual property is the result of hard work and innovation that drives many small businesses.