Gerry Connolly

Governor John Kasich wrote an op-ed piece in which he said we haven't used all the soft power with respect to sanctions that we could have.

I mean, what is the soft power available to us that could be efficacious?

I think we need to send a stronger message to those actors from the U.S.

We are in danger, without looking at it as a specific crisis but an ongoing issue, of losing Southeastern Asia, and especially losing the one country that was moving toward democracy, which will now be lost.

We must look at ways to reach out to the world, to our EU partners, our partners in Japan, who are the big trading partners of Cambodia, and speak with one voice that the world will not allow Cambodia to dissent from democracy.

We must support the efforts of our State Department. We must continue to educate. We must make sure that Kem Sokha is released.

Following these moves, it is to the White House's credit, that it announced that it would no longer support the 2018 election in Cambodia, calling it illegitimate.

I think that is really important for us to understand, that we have been identified as a co-conspirator in Kem Sokha's alleged crime of treason to topple the Cambodian Government.

It is simply not in our interest to, frankly, honor those kinds of requests.

I think we were trying to respect a strong----

You were asked by my colleague Karen Bass of California a reasonable question, how many troops do we have in Africa?

Any hopeful signs in this regard in terms of good governance, civil society, political pluralism?

I think you shared with me your own personal experience in terms of health records.

We are committed on a bipartisan basis to make this happen, so we have got your back.

We think that the CIO has just got to be an empowered person and everyone needs to know it.

That is a pretty strong stretch goal to go from 400-plus to 20.

Can you summarize what kind of performance did we see in the FITARA scorecard for VA this time?

I call upon the Chinese Government to release Lobsang Tsering and everyone else who is a prisoner of conscience.

The Dalai Lama has not--what the Dalai Lama wants with the Middle Way policy is genuine autonomy.

What percentage of Tibet today, population wise, is ethnic Han?

Has it gotten better? Has it gotten worse? How successful do you think the Chinese Government is in consolidating that set of policies to their end, which is basically to make Tibet Chinese, culturally, ethnically, politically?

I have no further speakers at this time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Did we act on evidence-based policymaking? Were there studies and data that showed how successful extending the probationary would be for all of these Federal agencies?

Did my colleague just say there was not a single hearing on a bill that affects the entire Federal Government?

I thank the Chair for that clarification. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Raskin), who is a professor and a very able member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. {time} 1545