Jeff Merkley

I am quite impressed by the way we have responded, but I do think that the circumstances regarding Hong Kong, Ukraine, and China's use of high-tech to suppress the Uyghurs are very appealing strategies to many authoritarian leaders.

One of the things that both Russia and China have been engaged in is transnational repression and last week, I introduced a bill with Senators Rubio, Cardin, and Hagerty, a comprehensive bill.

I remain concerned that as many as 35 states are not using this block grant funding for stillbirth prevention activities.

I am going to keep working to pass the Maternal and Child Health Stillbirth Prevention Act, to clarify in statute.

I encourage you to persist aggressively, given the consequences of failure, and we certainly have a deeply entrenched company, or companies, determined to keep addicting children.

I introduced bill, the Children's Safe Welcome Act, which we have shared with your team, which was designed to kind of lay out the gold standard.

Transitioning to LNG is not decarbonization.

It is as bad as coal.

DFC has blinders on, and is continuing to support all these fossil projects.

The DFC is doing exactly what we have to not do.

It is time to say that DFC has to rethink this strategy doing far more harm than good.

The world is at this crisis point.

And yet here we are continuing to promote one project after another.

The amount of fossils that can be burned by humankind across the globe, and keep us below 1.5 degrees centigrade, is microscopic now.

I have submitted a request for this budget to include some dedicated funds for supporting folks who advocate for, and support environmental defenders.

USAID's Climate Strategy says it seeks to promote a safe and secure political environment for indigenous peoples, human rights, and environmental defenders.

I really salute the administration's commitment to those--to the four programs: So one is the dioxin cleanup, one is the disabilities with children, and a third is continuing the demining, and the fourth is the Wartime Accounting…

It is exciting, as someone who grew up during the Vietnam War, to see the positive relationship that we now have with Vietnam, and hoping to build on that.

In Vietnam we really wanted to reinforce support for the Leahy programs to heal the wounds of war.

Thank you, Chair Merkley, Ranking Member Murkowski and all members of the subcommittee for the opportunity to submit testimony in support of full funding of $425 million in FY 2024 for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

Congress needs to provide for an annual base funding increase to support ongoing operation and improvement obligations.

Thank you Chairman Jeff Merkley, Ranking Member Lisa Murkowski, and Members of the subcommittee for your leadership to reduce pollution in rivers, improve clean water access, safeguard public drinking water supplies.

I think it is an incredibly important investigation and report. We need to shine a light on the past in order to understand issues that may help us direct into the future.

Amen to that. And I have a bill to change that, so Thank you, for drawing attention and spotlighting that issue.

I think this is particularly challenging in Tribal settings where people may be more remote, have fewer folks nearby to assist.