Bob Casey

I want to commend you and Senator Burr for bringing us together today, and I am grateful for that not only on behalf of the people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but the whole country.

Senator Burr has a longstanding and persistent reputation for standing up for vulnerable populations.

We need to eliminate that kind of confusion. The Speak Up bill will make our laws more clear and help us get to the crimes we need to stop.

Child abuse is the ultimate betrayal, isn't it, the ultimate betrayal of a child, when every child has, and should have, a reasonable expectation of safety and security.

We welcome the Speak Up to Protect Every Abused Child Act, introduced by Senator Casey.

How do we then reach people to educate them about that is a major question.

If you had the opportunity to enact a Federal law today that did three things, what are the most important three elements of that legislation in terms of what we can do to prevent this from happening again?

If you have been abused, tell someone . . . get help!

I am a cosponsor of what Senator Menendez and Senator Kirk are trying to do.

There is a sense of urgency here or there is, I think, a greater sense of urgency that a lot of people feel in our country.

I think it is finally more apparent to people across our own country because of the assassination plot, because of what the IAEA reported recently.

I would like to know what direction you are heading in, and what FDA is doing to make an investment in its reviewers?

We've heard a lot about this in Pennsylvania, so I appreciate your answers.

What are you doing about recruiting and staff retaining?

These are hard issues.

Let me just say for the record before we go that the record will be kept open for 1 week for members of the committee.

I do not know if any of our colleagues have more questions, but I just have one comment.

It is as if, with the other subjects we have talked about--it is worth remembering where we were not very long ago and where we are today, which helps gives us the sense of inevitability that basically Bashar is finished.

I would suggest to the administration to make sure that an answer is forthcoming, whether it comes from the Commerce Department or from whatever agency the answer would emanate.

I had teamed up with Senator DeMint to call for these sanctions.

It is incredibly courageous what these Syrian opposition figures--the protesters--are doing every day.

The opposition's ability to come together, because of the Turkish facilitation, is a tremendous accomplishment.

Turkey is providing some space for the opposition forces to meet to discuss, to try to lay out a vision.

I think the fact that the Arab League has now made an attempt that he seems to be kind of thumbing his nose at--for lack of a better description--

Our advice is to President Assad is that he leave now.