Gerry Connolly

How in the world do we continue to justify decisions such as that made recently by Secretary Kerry nonetheless to go forward with the delivery of Apache helicopters to that military?

We former staffers like to believe it makes for a better Congress

I thank my colleague. This budget--I am not going to call somebody Dracula. I am sure it is sincere--but it is all about cutting taxes at the public's expense. It disinvests in America. So we disinvest in R&D, we disinvest in our future…

I haven't heard anything from your agency. Not a word in a year and the intent of the legislation is to be helpful.

That is of concern to a number of us on this committee.

The idea that the problem is on the Democratic side of the aisle with respect to supporting six day delivery is simply not correct.

It is such a refreshing and hopeful experience to come to this committee and see how work is conducted in a professional and bipartisan manner.

I think this legislation is important not only for what it does in tightening sanctions against that regime, but in sending the strongest message I hope in a unanimous bipartisan basis by this Congress that we will stand shoulder to…

This regime has to fall, and the United States, as I said, must be a beacon of hope and freedom for those who suffer under its oppression.

This legislation, I think, is an important symbol by the Congress that we are not going to stand idly by and allow the depredations and the unspeakable brutality of a regime that would make George Orwell pause in the systematic suppression…

We must do everything we can to increase opportunities available to women and girls, especially in countries that are struggling to achieve peace and democracy.

Every child deserves the opportunity to obtain a quality education in the best environment possible and to be given the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

I think it is really important, as we just heard in this hearing, education is transformative. It is the key to changing the status of women.

So we must ensure that promoting education for girls and women abroad remains a priority for the U.S.

One thing I have been advocating on this committee for a long time is that we put our development and foreign aid dollars into printing textbooks.

We don't want to have a whole bunch of Ph.D.s with nothing to do.

If you are going to have education you got to have opportunity that goes with it.

I think moving into the 21st century by empowering women and giving them more space--more public space to express themselves and to be educated, to get jobs, to be involved in politics, we are going to push some of those social cultural…

To what extent does the promise of education get dashed on the shoals of other cultural barriers?

The title of this hearing is 'Women's Education: Promoting Development, Countering Radicalization.'

For one thought of a way to do this without tremendous expense would just be to take expired textbooks here in the United States that are effective texts, ship them back in some of the empty shipping containers that you and I have talked…

So I think we have to understand a certain risk will be inherent in these activities.

At its fundamental, ACA is about coverage, and Massachusetts is demonstrating it.

Do you have an individual mandate requirement in Massachusetts that preceded ObamaCare?

It came out of the Heritage Foundation. It was a conservative Republican idea.