"The Clean Water State Revolving Fund and its sister program, the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, are of vital importance to New York City and New York State and cities around the country really."
"I urge the committee to include report language that funding be of a humanitarian nature and explicitly not intended for the use of military or state police efforts."
"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."
"I am in support of the Venezuelan people and their efforts to have transparent, democratic elections."
"I think that we have turned our heads and our backs on that region for far too long, and they are really our backyard, and we should have an ongoing positive working relationship."
"We have abdicated our leadership role in that region and created a vacuum of leadership, and for that reason we have seen now recently how countries even like China have stepped in to plug that leader..."
"And just keep in mind that as we begin to pay more attention to the border and Central and South America, drug dealers will shift their strategy to other borders."
"I recognize that that is tragic and that a lot of the funding that is going to help the Venezuelan people is being stopped at some of their border points."
"It is imperative that the U.S. support the right of the Venezuelan people to freely and fairly elect their leaders."
"The U.S. cannot again be a foreign power meddling in the affairs of another country."
"I urge this committee again to double the funding for the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative for Fiscal year 2019."