Joaquin Castro

As violence and instability continue to plague Iraq and Syria, the world must support a sovereign, democratic Iraq, and counter the meddling of nations like Iran.

I was greatly concerned by the announcement that the United States, as was the chairman, that we withdraw our military presence of Syria.

I thank the Administration for their forward-leaning statement that, if the Assad regime uses chemical weapons, the United States and our allies will respond forcefully.

Since 2015, Russia has involved itself in Syria in order to support Bashar al-Assad's government.

I know you can't speak as a representative of all community colleges but I spent time in Texas as a vice chairman of the higher ed committee for a two terms and a lot of the challenges that we had with our community colleges I think they…

This is a bipartisan bill, and I urge support from all Members. I yield back the balance of my time.

If our development is truly about having countries get up on their own feet, you have also got to help their own economic infrastructure.

I would hope that we would do something to help them export to the United States and export to other countries.

Do you think other governments see the President's treatment as a green light in other countries?

But I worry a lot about what is happening here and the kind of message that our President is sending when he calls the press the enemy of the people or calls any story that paints him in a bad light as fake news, what effects that must…

I just think that we have to avoid the temptation to see these nations as only charity cases because I think that it undermines, I think, their humanity and who they are.

But if it is truly, if our development is truly about having countries get up on their own feet, you have also got to help their own economic infrastructure.

For the longest time, certain parts of the world, including Africa, have gotten the out of sight, out of mind treatment.

Well, it can become very tempting for governments when they have the capacity to surveil to actually engage in that deep surveillance.

Well, it is clear that they are setting themself, themselves up in certain places to be able to collect data and keep that data and use it.

I would just hope that you all would really think about what your Department can do to be helpful to students.

Thank you, Chairman. Secretary DeVos, thank you for your testimony. You know, over the last many years, we have had very heated debates and important debates about things like teacher pay, many of us believed they deserve a raise.

To those individuals, we see you. We affirm you. And we are here to fight alongside you.

We cannot let fear impede progress. The American story is one of expanding equality for marginalized people.

In Texas, we have seen a backlash, especially among some of our politicians, against movements toward equality.

And how much progress have we made also on articulation agreements among universities and community colleges?

Well, because often folks that will go to the for-profit institutions are left with a lot of debt, and sometimes they can't find jobs either.

What new approaches--and I guess let me also preface that by saying when I was in Texas I was vice chair of the higher education committee for 4 years and I saw, Mr. Ortega, that you worked in Texas for some time.

I think we need to do more to break the traditional structures of higher ed and offer more opportunities for students.

We certainly support your efforts to obviously allow China to compete, but not to cheat around the world.