David Cicilline

It's very unusual. This is pattern for the attorney general. He comes before a committee. He takes an oath to testify truthfully and fully.

The way the United Nations peacekeeping mission works is like what we were talking about with USAID.

They should do much more to support local peacebuilding initiatives.

The idea is not to get rid of the peacekeeping mission, but to make it more effective.

I am going to second what Ida Sawyer said regarding the presence of United Nations peacekeepers, which is absolutely essential.

I think sanctions are needed. If you don't use them, it becomes something in the toolbox that dictators... turn around and say, no worry here.

Delay is denial. Unless we see very significant progress that this is really going to happen, it is going to happen.

Maternal mortality, which I take a backseat to no one in trying to stop it every time we can.

One of the biggest takeaways from the NIH-funded projects, the peer-reviewed studies found, that when a woman gets folic acid in the first month of her pregnancy, the incidence of autism drops by 40 percent.

If you ensure that from the moment of conception to that second birthday, both mother and child have food and supplementation, it mitigates maternal mortality and morbidity.

And finally, last Congress, I was the House sponsor of the Global Food Security Act, which was signed into law.

We should have this Congress attack foreign policy and do what is right, rather than relying on a Congress when I was here.

Thank you, Chairman Ros-Lehtinen, and Chairman Yoho, and Ranking Member Deutch, and Ranking Member Sherman, for holding this joint subcommittee hearing.

This administration has also disappointingly failed to appoint an envoy of the office to monitor and combat anti-Semitism.

I think everyone would agree that criticism of Israel and policies of Israel and disagreement is not anti-Semitic as a principle.

This spike in anti-Semitism is something which should be of grave concern to all of us.

I think, unfortunately, the previous administration opened the door... for Russia to take a position in the Middle East...

Counterterrorism cooperation is something much deeper. It is about intelligence sharing, actual joint operations...

Because if those neighboring states would be able to develop into successful democracies... why should the Russian population itself tolerate continuing to live under those circumstances.

Ranking Member Keating, what I referred to was specifically and primarily Russia's behavior toward its neighbors.

The entire region, with the exception of Israel, is a very harsh and even dangerous climate for those who seek to protect the rights of LGBT individuals.

When President Trump takes high-profile meetings with leaders like President Sisi of Egypt, President Erdogan of Turkey, and King Salman in Saudi Arabia and fails to bring up issues of human rights or democratic governance, what message…

We talk about democracy-building and so forth. There was a lot of rationalizing about the coup...

I fear that the lack of leadership we have from this administration on these issues leaves American national security interests exposed to the chaos and uncertainty that authoritarianism breeds.

Thank you, Chairman Ros-Lehtinen and Ranking Member Deutch, for calling this important and very timely hearing today.