Thank you, Chairman Wicker, Ranking Member Booker, and to my other colleagues, Senators Klobuchar, Hassan, Blumenthal, Young, and Hassan, who are here.

We need a strategy, and that strategy has to include what our goals are for the region.

first I want to thank my colleague for coming to the floor today to speak about Montenegro and the importance of its accession into NATO, as well as for his focus on the Balkans and for his comment that right now the people of the Balkans…

keeping those sea lanes open obviously has a major impact on international commerce

the image we wish to project is as a country continually maintaining a commitment to the region

President Trump has sent a number of impressive candidates our way: among those have been Elaine Chao, who happens to be related to one of our colleagues, and also Jeffrey Rosen.

I am glad that we are here. You are a guy--although you are a Floridian now--who does hail from the Buckeye State.

You stood up, both in your roles in government and in the private sector.

You have the Hill experience. You also have the experience at USTR and the experience of working with the private sector on some of these tough trade issues.

You have been an advocate for balanced trade--and the importance of trade exports was talked about today, and that trade expansion is critical to middle-class jobs in my home State of Ohio.

We have a situation now where more and more families are facing this challenge of addiction.

This is incredibly deadly stuff, 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin, and it is killing people.