There is reason to believe that an appropriate level of support... could have a positive impact in the Central American nations.

I am generally pro-trade, but I do think the labor protection elements are very important, given the--you know, the nations we are dealing with.

I think that is a very important point.

Thank you, Mr. President. I appreciate the comments of Chairman Corker, and I appreciate the two punch lines of the Senator from Kansas to his argument that I am strongly in support of. The first is that this is a very momentous topic, and…

I ask unanimous consent that the time allotted during quorum calls be charged to both sides. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

I rise to speak in favor of the Corker- Menendez bill. I thank Chairman Corker for his kind words and for the opportunity to work together on something, in what I believe to be the best traditions of our committee and the Senate. I thank…

I was proud to offer an amendment with Senator Cardin, Senator Menendez, to the budget resolution, which passed unanimously.

You will be glad to know that your independent IG yesterday assigned his priorities in the same way you did and put security of State Department personnel and our operations as the first priority.

I hope we provide authorities to the State Department they need.

My intuition would tell me that the demand for this kind of training from United States is probably increasing pretty significantly.

I am on the Armed Services Committee. We have a Readiness Committee hearing this afternoon where acquisition reform and managing contracts and grants is going to be the topic.

Is the responsibility for doing the vetting of local security fully on the State Department shoulders?

Sadly, on the security mission and how important it is, since Benghazi, you have had to evacuate in calendar year 2014 the Embassy in Libya.

I have been so proud of the people I have met.

Well, that will be helpful to us as we tackle reauthorization.

Accountability for those recommendations needs to be at the Deputy Secretary level.

I am over time, but I am going to come back to this.

You did not flag this in your oral testimony in the new challenge category, but as I read your written testimony, I would call OCO a new challenge because it was kind of handed to you in 2014, along with the DOD and what is the other…

As I've traveled as an Armed Services member, one of the things I've really seen is how well Special Forces do in training foreign militaries.

One of the areas that I was very concerned about in reading the ARB report...

We may give DOD OCO, but we have not given you an OIG OCO, have we?

When the United States has to evacuate an embassy because of security concerns, this is a big, big deal.

So your request of us would be, in a reauthorization, we try to structure the reporting language to the IG somewhat similar to the way DOD would have it?

Am I right that, sort of as a part of the big DOD budget, these training activities are not a--you know, a massive percentage of the DOD budget?

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Commemorating Virginia Tech Shooting