Cardin Requests Extension of Protected Status for Salvadorans in the United States

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen Thursday requesting an 18-month extension of the existing Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for nearly 200,000 Salvadoran nationals currently living in the United States. The status expires on March 9, 2018. Senator Cardin said in part, "For nearly a decade, El Salvador has consis… Continue Reading

FLOOR SPEECH ON THE DREAMERS AND TPS

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I thank Senator Durbin for his extraordinary leadership on this issue and so many others. The Dreamers are part of this country. They are America's future. They are helping to build this great Nation, and they need our attention now. The Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House. One of their principal responsibilities is to pass a budget. We are now 3 months into the fiscal year, and we don't have a budget, and we are talking about another… Continue Reading

Human Rights Spotlight: Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo

Today at his regular pen and pad session with reporters on Capitol Hill, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, distributed the below fact sheet about imprisoned Reuters reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, in Burma. Cardin called for their immediate release. He also took the opportunity to make the following statement about broader press freedom issues: "I want to acknowledge that there has been a real, serious attack against the independence of j… Continue Reading

Cardin Welcomes Latest Sergei Magnitsky Act Sanctions

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement Wednesday after the Trump Administration released five new sanctions designations under the 2012 Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law and Accountability Act. Cardin and U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) are the legislation's co-authors: "I welcome the addition of five new sanctions designations under the 2012 Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law and Accountability Act. Today… Continue Reading

Cardin: Reuters Reporters Should Be Released From Burmese Imprisonment

Today at his regular pen and pad session with reporters on Capitol Hill, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, distributed the below fact sheet about imprisoned Reuters reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, in Burma. Cardin called for their immediate release. He also took the opportunity to make the following statement about broader press freedom issues: "I want to acknowledge that there has been a real, serious attack against the independence of … Continue Reading

Cardin Decries Backsliding in Burma as UN Human Rights Investigator Denied Access to Country

"Burma continues to move in the wrong direction. A genocide has taken place against the Royhingya community in Rakhine, Burma, and it is astounding that the government has the audacity to now deny entry to the international official responsible for upholding human rights standards in that country. This development compounds the disastrous decision by Burmese authorities to arrest and detain two Reuters reporters working to uncover mass graves in Rakhine, who must be released immediately. I will … Continue Reading

Cardin Asks Haley to Convene Emergency UN Session on Venezuela

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke on the Senate floor Wednesday about the dire state of affairs facing the Venezuelan people and wrote to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, urging her to convene an emergency session of the UN Security Council to explore ways to alleviate human suffering in Venezuela. "With Venezuela's humanitarian crisis growing daily, conditions facing Venezuelan children are parti… Continue Reading

Cardin Opposes Republican Tax Bill, Calls It An Assault on Middle-Income Families

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, took to the floor of the United States Senate Tuesday night prior to the vote on the Republican tax bill to highlight many of the grave issues with the legislation. Video of Senator Cardin's full remarks can be found here: WATCH: https://youtu.be/MWhGhpLWIwk DOWNLOAD: Snapstream "The American people understand that this tax bill will hurt middle-income families. They know it will add to the deficit. This bi… Continue Reading

Cardin Praises UN Renewal of Syrian Humanitarian Assistance

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement Tuesday after the United Nations Security Council voted to renew UNSC Resolution 2165, which authorizes cross-border humanitarian assistance in Syria: "Today's decision by the UN Security Council was the right one, and I urge all friends of the Syrian people to do much more to ensure humanitarian access to besieged areas, particularly East Ghouta. "I am disa… Continue Reading

Cardin Expresses Concern about the Electoral Crisis in Honduras

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement Monday regarding the current electoral crisis in Honduras: "The widespread irregularities documented in the second report by the Organization of American States' election observation mission raise further doubts about the legitimacy of the Honduran elections. The fact that the OAS observation mission cannot certify the election results is a startling statement a… Continue Reading

Filibuster-proof Number of Senators Urge Appropriators to Strip Environmental Riders from End-of-Year Spending Package

WASHINGTON - Forty senators, led by Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), are urging appropriators negotiating an end-of-year package to keep the spending bill free of dangerous environmental policy riders too often found in House appropriations. The letter, also supported by Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), brings together more senators than have signed onto a letter of this type in recent history and more than the required number of … Continue Reading

Cardin Statement On Chinese Seizure Of U.S. Navy Submersible From International Waters

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, released the following statement Friday: "China's seizure of an U.S. Navy unmanned scientific research submersible in international waters off the South China Sea is a remarkably brazen violation of international law. No matter its motivation, China needs to explain its actions and immediately return the undersea drone, untampered with, to th… Continue Reading

Following Cardin, Van Hollen and Delaney Efforts, NDAA Provision Requiring Study on Ft. Detrick Biodefense Lab Signed Into Law

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, and Congressman John K. Delaney (all D-Md.) applaud the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Conference Report signed this week by the President, which includes a provision that would require a thorough study of the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) at Fort Detrick. Using language similar to Senator Cardin's amendment passed in the Senate version of NDAA, which was cosponsored by Senator Van Hollen and… Continue Reading

Cardin, Magnitsky Act Author, Speaks at Helsinki Commission Hearing on Impact of Human Rights Law Five Years Later

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission), delivered the following opening remarks Thursday at a Commission hearing on 'The Magnitsky Act at Five: Assessing Accomplishments and Challenges.' Senator Cardin is the lead author of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act and the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act: "Chairman Wi… Continue Reading

Transparency Champions Sens. Cardin, Lugar Call On House To Block Effort To Roll-Back Transparency, Anti-Corruption Standards For Oil, Gas, Mining Industries

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a member of the Senate Finance Committee, and former Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), called Wednesday for Members of the House of Representatives to block H.R. 4519 from further consideration after it passed the House Financial Services Committee. The legislation would repeal Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, commonly known as the Cardin-Lugar … Continue Reading

Cardin Expresses Concerns, Raises Questions about Presidential Use of Military Force Issues

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, delivered the following opening remarks Wednesday at a hearing on "The Use of Force: Strategic, Political and Legal Considerations.": "Mr. Chairman, thank you for convening this hearing. As I said when Secretaries Tillerson and Mattis were before our committee this is perhaps one of the most important responsibilities we have in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to consider circumstances and l… Continue Reading

Cardin Delivers Senate Speech On State Of State Department Concerns

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, delivered a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday regarding ongoing personnel, management and mission statement issues at the State Department. The following remarks were prepared for delivery: "M. President. I come to the floor today to share my deep concern over the current state of America's global diplomacy. A multitude of decisions made by this administration in the last year have caused… Continue Reading

Cardin Remains Concerned About Damage Inflicted on State Department, USAID Following Tillerson Address to Employees

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement Tuesday after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson addressed employees of the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development: "Secretary Tillerson missed an opportunity today to put the State Department back on a path to full health and definitively end his poorly conceived and ill-executed hiring freeze at State and USAID, among the only agenc… Continue Reading

Senators to Tax Budget Conferees: Remove Harmful Renewable Energy Provisions, Protect Clean Energy Blue-Collar Jobs

WASHINGTON - As Republicans on the congressional tax scam conference committee try to finalize their partisan plan this week, Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) are demanding removal of renewable energy provisions from the final conference report that would devastate clean energy deployment and jo… Continue Reading

Cardin Condemns Deadly Attack On UN Peacekeepers In Democratic Republic Of The Congo

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement Friday after UN peacekeepers were attacked in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing at least 14 and injuring at least 40: "I strongly condemn today's brutal attack in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on UN Peacekeepers, in what the international body is calling the worst attack on peacekeepers in recent history. "I am deeply concerned about the in… Continue Reading