David Cicilline

We are living in very difficult times, where we see violence and guns continuing to plague our communities.

The time has long passed for Congress to act to enact responsible gun safety legislation. Mr. Speaker, bring these two bills to the floor for a vote. ____________________

I strongly support H.R. 5332, the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2016.

I thank you and Ranking Member Engel for holding this markup today.

American leadership in the world is critically important today, given the many challenges facing the United States, our allies, and our partners around the globe.

I am pleased that this committee has once again come together in a spirit of bipartisanship to mark up the State Department authorization for the first time since 2013.

The existing sanctions regime has not caused the administration to impose a single imposition of sanction for human rights.

I think part of the challenge for us, though, is that we were told during this process that getting the nuclear issue off the table was so critical.

There was no evidence to support allegations that Commissioner Koskinen deliberately misled Congress or attempted to obstruct a congressional Committee.

However, I must respectfully disagree with the conclusions they have drawn today before this Committee.

There are really no doubts about the veracity of the case of Sergei Magnitsky, who was only 37 years old when he was killed in Russian Government custody after exposing wide-scale corruption and tax fraud by Russian officials.

The persecution of the LGBT individuals and those protecting their rights are included in the abuses sanctionable by this legislation.

This important legislation builds upon the achievements of the Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.

I want to thank the gentleman from New York for the introduction of this bill. It closes an important gap in the statute, which will enhance the safety of our country and provide essential review confidentially. I urge my colleagues to…

Given sustained U.S. interests and support to Lebanon over the years, our strategic objective of supporting a viable, independent, sovereign and democratic Lebanon that is at peace with its neighbors is more important than ever.

It is incredibly important that we are careful not to seem to be elevating abuses against one particular group above others.

Religious minorities around the world face discrimination, harassment, persecution, and worse.

I strongly support the goals of this legislation to protect and promote religious freedom around the world.

It's to hide the identity of donors, to make it seem as though campaign season ads are speaking for the people when they're really speaking for the wealthy individuals and corporations that fund these super-PACs.

The poor handling of tax-exempt applications at the IRS was a direct result of the Supreme Court's obliterating our campaign finance system in Citizens United.

The real scandal, I would suggest, is the fact that political spending by so-called social welfare groups is exempted from taxation and is subsidized by the American people.

It's clear that section 111(d) of the Act gives the EPA broad authority to address not just pollutants that were known at the time of the Act's passage, but also new problems as they arose.

Denigrating the poor as undeserving is a way to score points, I suppose, with some conservative voters.

The real scandal here is the waste of taxpayer money in the majority's continued pursuit of this nonscandal.

It is completely unacceptable that the Israeli people continue to live under the constant threat of terrorist violence.