Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, on the Foreign Affairs Committee, we focus a great deal on the importance of diplomacy and development as pillars of American foreign policy. The reason why we to do this is simple: diplomacy and development advance our interests and values in a way that saves lives, that prevents war, that stops crises before they start, and helps stabilize countries where conflicts have occurred. These efforts strengthen old friendships and build new bridges of understanding with people and cultures and governments throughout the world. We will always need a strong military, but sending our servicemembers into harm's way should, likewise, always be a measure of last resort. So, on our committee, we look for ways to make our diplomacy and development more effective. We try to give our diplomats and development experts the tools and resources they need to carry out their critical work. Today, the House is taking up six bills aimed at doing just that. The first is a bill of mine that I am glad is moving forward. Let me thank our ranking member, my friend, Mr. McCaul of Texas, for joining as a cosponsor. This legislation gets at the heart of what we want to see from our diplomatic and development efforts around the world: helping places already torn apart by violence to recover and preventing the start of violence in other places where factors are ripe for its outbreak.…”