Event. We have seen in recent years and increasing recognition of corruption, serious and wide ranging consequences in the nation it occurs in u. S. Foreign policy. It deters commerce and intensifies social inequalities. It drains dollars and provides obstacles for democracy and rule of law by undermining the functioning and legitimacy of institutions. this means that requires evaluating past approaches for what has and hasnt worked. It will be working alone as well as in concert with National Partners to address and other forms of corruption. It is the issues that will delve into today. We have, very forcefully, and impressive speakers both have been on the front lines of designing and implementing or advocating for those policies. They include former and sitting government officials, legal experts, leaders of nongovernmental organizations. I believe its fitting that were starting off the podium. From then carded, instrumental in driving letter station. He is a longtime advocate of a more assertive addressing corruption issues abroad. With that, i think all of you for coming today. We look forward to an excellent session and please join me in welcoming, tend to. [applause] thanks. Good morning everyone. Back everyone here knows the senator and i dont go through the bio. He has been thinking about these issues for many many years. First at the state level in maryland and then at the house and now in the senate. Let me start off by asking you in your time here, 30 years, close to 30 years here in washington, youve dealt a lot with Foreign Policy. You dealt with wars, economic collapses, refugee crisis, nuclear threats, nuclear threats, all sorts of issues to name a few. Amid all of these, where to scrub brush crops and break. Shannon, thank you for holding. The discussions dealing with corruption. You have to be careful because theres outside forces working against us. We scheduled this a month ago and we had snow, today im here to try to get away from a Nuclear Fallout is happening in the United States senate. [laughter] you know theres always outside forces at work. Corruption you talk about my experience. When i first came to congress i got involved in the key. Mainly because i recognized the human rights and anticorruption issues in regards to the values of america. America strength is in its values. Its what we stand for. When this period of history is recorded, i am certain that of america in bringing down the soviet union and advancing democracies around the world will be the values that we stood for, not our military, military, not our economy but our values. Our values are anticorruption, human rights and thats what we stand for is in nation. About eight months ago i was called to the white house, the National Security Council Meeting that was called on corruption. For the reasons you just said in the introduction of the session. That corruption is the cancer that is spreading, that is affecting the welfare of the Global Community. It leads to crime, syndicates, gives a void where terrorists can thrive, its a circumstance where we find when we dont fight corruption, governments are not stable. You see the protests that are going on around the world. People want an honest government. Its robbing people of the wealth of their countries. I can give you many examples. Let me cite the most recent that we are confronting, a problem in Northern Africa of famine. Millions of people are at risk and when you look at Transparency International 2016 index on corruption they iran 176 countries. The last two on that list are in south sudan. This is a famine that has caused conflict and lack of government. Nature is not the leading cause for white people in south sudan and somalia are starting. Corruption is an issue we need to deal with and if we dont deal with it there will be wars, less prosperity and it will affect americas National Security in the globe. Let me prohibit to legislation on this. This year is the 40th anniversary of the foreign corrupt packed in 1977. Arguably this is this is the big legislative foray of the United States interfacing corruption abroad. Id love to ask you to reflect over the last several years, few decades, since that passage and as we look at us patient. What achievements have been made, what are we lacking . Whats our record . Thanks for breathing that up. I smile because when companies tell me theres a quota for us businesses because we cant participate in corruption, they hold government contracts. [laughter] weve made progress, theres no question that weve made progress in fighting corruption but the challenges are incredible. Today we are facing a Global Community where there is a question of how important corruption really is. The number one example is russia. Corruption is the lubricant for white Vladimir Putin is doing what hes doing. Hes a master at deception and creates problems around the world. They have this National View of ps leadership. If that becomes legitimate than the progress were making and getting more popular people to vote on. Fight corruption. Solely on the us leadership has made a difference but we have a long way to go. In recent years, weve lost a little little bit of the momentum. Certainly, with russias dominance now in World Affairs and their moving their footprint well beyond europe. You saw their attack here in the United States and youre seeing what theyre doing in the middle east. We have a challenge ahead of us let me do what i had of us. Weve had some progress and achievements and perhaps a back topping but what the United States could do or should do . Im proud of bills that we passed and it was first passed for russia and then was passed globally in my colleague and that legislation was senator mccain. The two of us had championed legislation on capitol hill. It was not easy. Our friends in the state department do not Like Congress getting involved. Its a universal view when the whether democratic or republican but they would prefer congress to go away. They dont like to deal with us. Congress was saying, look, will put a spotlight on corruption, first in russia because of the tragedy involvings are gay but it was deeper than him, we had to face what vladimir was doing. We said basically, if youre involved in gross violations of human rights corruption and your country doesnt take action against you and that what happened in the tragedy of her gay, work not going to not allow you to visit our country and help our economy. That was passed and it was passed not just in the United States but its passed in European Countries and gotten a good deal of International Attention and now weve moved to global to use these tools anywhere in the world. Its working. Believe me, people who are involved in corruption, they dont want their wealth in their own country. It does help and its making progress. So, yesterday, i along with senator purdue today could corruption index bill that will allow us to do what weve done in trafficking persons with the tip report that would document how every country is doing in their campaign against corruption by giving tier ratings to see how well youre doing relative to the rest of the world, developing standards to fight corruption including antibribery laws, transparency, those types of issues that are important to fight corruption and using that information in our different agencies of government, particularly, are foreign since budget to make sure that we focus on anticorruption activities. We can do more. Lastly, the single Development Goals that we talked about before. We can expand on the gender issues. Where the United States through our leadership are able to get the International Community working through the United Nations to put Good Governments is one of the goals for our sustainable Development Goals in the un. Weve made progress but is more we can do. Let me ask you, as your bill goes forward in the past, a lot of it will depend on the government working together and there some in this room and elsewhere that worry the Top Administration that this is a priority for them. That some of the leadership has shown on the anticorruption is no longer there. Thats a diplomatic way of putting it. [laughter] the Top Administration has made this much more difficult. For many, many reasons. Ill try to be concise. I could talk a long time about it . Theres a highlight this week when President Trump met with the president of egypt and theres a lot of things you could say about the egyptian, us relationships and theres a lot of Strategic Issues we need to talk about but clearly, the reforms in egypt needed need to be in the forefront of that discussion. Otherwise, were again again going to run into the problems of whether this government to maintain stability in a very important country in the middle east. President trump never mentioned it. When youre talking about us visible leadership and bilateral relations, our values have to be front and center. It was not. Then, earlier this week, we, we saw secretary tillerson talk about president thought and that it be perfectly okay for him to say for him to say that the people of egypt wanted. Then this week we saw the syrian president used the gas on chemical on civilians. That lack of moral clarity, that lack of putting a focus on Good Government anticorruption, is very damaging to our ability to advance these issues. Let me compare that to Ambassador Haleys been pretty clear about a moral clarity issues and i would urge President Trump and secretary tillerson to take a lesson from Ambassador Haley how we should be clear. Her comments about russia, i thought, were refreshing. It was not diplomatic. At times, we have to say those things. It goes deeper than just not showing the priority in the public statements on anticorruption and Good Government. We have problems with credibility in the Top Administration. When you endorse fake news as a strategy for Foreign Policy, or for domestic policy, and then meet with foreign leaders in an effort to advance Good Governments, your credibility is much we can. That is very true of the Top Administration. When you make a decision that youre not going to divest yourself of your own personal wealth as president of United States that you can determine what is in conflict and what is not in conflict, let alone by the clause in the constitution and we could go through a lot of those issues but the perception globally, and maybe the reality globally, is that the United States can profit from being president of the United States in his business interests. Weve think, as you know, the 38 trademarks that were approved by the Chinese Authority after 12 years of fighting and now the chinese president is meeting with president from, whose interests are being advanced . Personal or business interest . That makes it difficult to stand up for Good Government and anticorruption. More on transparency, the president now releasing tax returns. Transparency is one of the key elements of the anticorruption strategies. Is one of the first bills in congress sidetracking the provisions that senator lugar and i worked on transparency from the instructive industry so that poor countries could get the value of their minerals. Putting that on hold, all that compromises. Lastly, when you present your priorities for the budget, which is the priorities you seek for our country, and you say we could reduce our International Development program by 36 and America Needs to be there to help countries develop institutions that can protect against corruption all that combined and theres only one United States of america. Theres only one country that can do what we can do. And thats been severely damaged are executive is not going to lead on this. Is there anybody who can take up the mantle . Its grim but its not that grim. Let me give you some optimistic . Im not supposed to share what happens in the private meetings of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee so ill violate that a little bit in that, we had meetings with World Leaders who come in and meet with our committee. We had that with the president the day after he met with President Trump. Just about every member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee use their time and questioning president cc on human rights. Just about everything a member. That was to counter what was apparent by the lack of that discussion or reporting of that discussion with President Trump. There is great interest. In the congress we had champions on both side of the aisle on Good Government and anticorruption human rights. We have bipartisan support for the introduction of the bill that we did. It was john mccain who said that anticorruption should be a part of this. There is a strong bipartisan interest to advance these issues and we recognize both democrats and republicans have a challenge with the ministries. Were working together to counter that. I will open it up in a minute for open questions to our members. I want to ask you one more. Because our president is meeting with the president of china, china is a place where we think of deepseated corruption and president in someway has been champion antigovernment in a how effective they are, how theyre targeted. When you think about our relationship with china at times a partner, often a competitor, how do you prioritize corruption . What would be useful in the Us China Relationship . Theres been a pipe part of the group that encourage the president to bring these issues up in the meeting. We had a bipartisan effort to encourage this to be on the agenda. I dont want to disappoint you but the president did not share his agenda with me. I dont know what theyre going to talk about. I dont how transparent their conversations will be. One of the disappointing thing about secretary tillerson is that hes not sharing a lot of what hes doing with the American People in the Global Community. We dont know what is happening. The megaphone is important here so it would be helpful if the president did something visibly to show that human rights is on the agenda. We know that mr. Tillerson will be in russia. Will he had meetings with the opposition . Thats a very visible sign that hes open to the human rights agenda issue. Will he make public statements about that . So, yes, well, will be watching to see not what transpires in the property of the meeting but what is broadcast. That is a very important signal, it cant be kept private. Theres too many people fighting and struggling around the world that need to hear that hope. We met with courageous leaders, he was entitled to know that were fighting on his behalf. I dont know whether this will be brought up. China is doing good things to fight corruption and i think that there was reform in china that we saw some positive signs but under the newest president we have not seen the continuation of duration of that progress and if anything weve seen a retreat from the progress of been made. Its more challenging today for people to express themselves for religious freedom, and certainly corruption at the local level is wide we reported. Its a country that desperately needs to get back on track on reform and theyre going in the wrong direction right now. Let me open it up to your questions. Remember, this is a meeting that is on the record. Raise your hand, i will call on you and microphones will come around. And please state your name. Thank you for your leadership. Can you talk about us leaders and you gave examples of how the problems with the current and ministries. You didnt say anything about the general conflict of interest with weve been told it does not apply to the present. If thats true, doesnt that set a bad example to the United States as a conflict of interest that would and if thats a problem. The federal conflicts of interest does apply to the present. Let me explain that because i was part of the congress that passed these laws in response to some immediate concerns that et cetera. We didnt want to be challenged in the president s authority to act. Therefore, we didnt want the ability to challenge the effectiveness of the president of the United States definitively with the authority that he had. Thats the reason why he was given this leeway on being able to challenge actions. Conflicts to apply. The annulment clause is pretty clear on foreign transactions apply to the president of the 19th. Theres no question on that. Yes, i i am concerned that that is domestic conflicts. There will be questions as to whether his office is being used for personal gain. When his children travel with all of the protection that is appropriate because of their Family Connection to the president of United States and their vulnerability for security, thats intimidating to the people that their negotiating with on business deals. That to me is not appropriate. Thats why we have the tradition in this country that every president is divested or set up line trust in order to avoid that appearance of conflict or conflict situations. President trump has made the office vulnerable because of his refusal to do that. If you want to be secretary of state you had to divest. As he did, secretary tillerson it. But the president of the United States did not. Thats just wrong. I understand the technical aspects how you can challenge the president actions but conflicts apply to every person was in public life and the annulment clause applies to the president sarah chase from the carnegie endowment. To follow up on that question because of the credibility gap that you said is so important in terms of the United States ability to lead in this domain, understand where you are on the substance, emoluments, conflicts of interest, divestiture, tax, releasing tax returns, my question is youve been able to achieve remarkable bipartisan consensus on moving some of these issues forward with respect to the international sphere. Howd do you engage in conversation with your friends on the other side of the aisle on the application of them to the United States so that some of these things which may have been traditions in the past, law and that the law is intelligible. There are some emoluments cases that are outstanding. Thank you. Weve never been down this path before. We dont know about enforcements. Its difficult to figure out. Were looking at different ways to develop standing. Were all working with him to see if theres a way we can avoid this. I saw the resolution in congress to avoid this problem, to tell the president before and after he took the Office Open Office with the consent of congress that hes created a problem. He has to correct it to avoid a constitutional crisis. Were trying to weigh in in a way to avoid a constitutional crisis but we know ultimately and an enforcement can be done by the house of representatives. We dont want to go that route but thats the ultimate enforcement and we recognize that something that would cause a crisis in america. Were trying to avoid that if we possibly can to find ways that we can enforce these issues. In the meantime, i have put on notice our representatives globally about the a moment concerns and is this is being done we want to make sure theres no violation of the a moment clause and being facilitated by our missions and other countries. Have i seen a great deal of bipartisan cooperation on this . No, i have not. It has to do with that were just too close from the election and it was such an unorthodox way that President Trump was elected the republicans do not want to see in samaria and the legitimacy of the election and were not trying to do that in the democrat side but has prevented us from getting a bipartisan way to deal with the moment issues. I can tell you privately that republics say they shouldve released the tax returns and divested and blind trust but we havent quite got to the. That we can Work Together to correct the situation my name is emmett. Senator, thank you for your work on behalf of people around the world fighting corruption. Im originally from ukraine so corruption is a four topic for me and fellow citizens. I now live in lancaster pennsylvania and corruption in ukraine and anywhere else outside of the United States is not at hot topic. My question is do you think corruption oversees gets enough attention among general public in the us . Its not what should we do or should we do anything to aware the arena in this country but corruption oversees . Connect thats a great present. Unless it hits you personally, you dont fully realize how life could be adversely affected and they dont realize the impact internationally on the security of america and on the Global Economics and use of military issues dont hit them directly. Youre absolutely correct. If youre from ukraine, you understand this. Not during the immediate time but certainly there after, i saw what was happening in tf. What happened in ukraine was not a fight between russia and europe for the loyalty or desires of ukraine but it was the ukrainians wanting to get rid of a corrupt system. It was a Popular Uprising against corruption. What happened in romania in february. 500,000 turned out to fight corruption. Whats happening in russia where people are protesting against their corrupt government. It does, hit home, when it hits you. Americans have not been able to identify with the urgency with the urgency of corruption. We talk about this a lot. Do you have any suggestions of how we can get this done . [laughter] you may have noticed since the november elections theres a lot more people engaged in the political system, talk about it, want to get involved, want to weigh in. Were trying to figure out how to do that. If you have subjects suggestions, i mean it, let me know. At the end of the discussion were still asking how we can make a difference. Were trying to relate it to everyday life. Americans want an honest system. I think, when you look at the corruption in russia their questioning whether we have a system on capitol hill that will investigate it honestly. Thats one of the reasons why American People want an independent commission to investigate what russ was doing in the United States. They dont believe theres an honest system . Im not trying to discredit whats being done by the Senate Intelligence committee and i have a lot of confidence in senator warren but it be much better if we had a bipartisan commission. Christie clow with global financial. Thank you for cfr for hosting and ben cardin for your thoughts this morning. Weve been debating since the election, soon after and continuing into this year, is what strategy we pursue for anticorruption. We continue to fight aggressively or is that a riskier strategy and things to be rolled back . We should instead hunker down and try to lay low and hope and hope that we can hold onto the status quo until there seems to be a more favorable attitude in washington, whether thats white house or capitol hill. Second question is within congress, one of the things we talked about is going go at the republican side and from a security perspective that tends to play better maybe even a pure moral Development Argument and im not sure what your thoughts are on that from your time with your fellow members. I have a very easy answer for your. Get behind the bill that i put out yesterday. I want to underscore this, that legislation would evaluate how every nation around the world in fighting corruption. I passed over quickly the analogy to trafficking in persons. It wasnt too long ago that americans did not think trafficking in persons was an important issue. They didnt. They didnt think prostitution with trafficking was all that important to their everyday life. Then, the congress of the United States got involved in with all due respect, it was initiated by Congress Come and not by any one administration, to say that this is modernday slavery. It has to end. The United States leadership is desperately needed for this to happen. Theyve then tried to put faces on it. Law enforcement and theyve always treated the victim as criminals rather than victims. Weve developed Victim Centers here in the United States because everyone thought trafficking was a problem with third world nations. Where do they want to go to . Wheres the profit for them . We recognize that we were a destination country. We had trafficking within the United States. We have problems ourselves. Trafficking in persons report not only evaluates every other country in the world but in the United States. The corruption report will evaluate what were doing here in america. I mentioned Transparency International report, america was not number one. We were number 18. There are things we can do better that were doing today. Get behind what were trying to do. Yes, in trafficking there are a lot of outside groups that were doing ratings before he put the United States government report together. But its us reports thats known globally today. Its known as the Gold Standard until it was somewhat tarnished in the evaluations by the obama industries. It still the Gold Standard and we want to make this effort, a bipartisan effort, were going to get resistance from the state department. No untreated make no mistake about it. I admire greatly our dedicated Foreign Service officers and what they do every day for america. They dont like to have another burden put on them. They dont want to have to raise issues that make their life more complicated and what theyre trying to get done in other countries. But fighting corruption is so important, as is is fighting trafficking so important, that we can elevate that. We could use your help in getting this report, legislation done. Its not a slamdunk and congress. It will be an uphill battle and we need your help. Thank you, shannon for organizing this and senator mr. Cardin. Ive been taking about these issues and introduce yourself. Went to woodrow wilson. Ive been thinking about this one of the things youre doing and elevating this important issue and it doesnt get discussed enough in our foreign aid and i think the approach youre taking is really about signing a light on problems in naming and shaming and bringing to the public the problems of corruption around the world. I think thats terrific. Another approach the Us Government has tried to strengthen the institution of government so that they could do that more effectively. If you look at brazil its remarkable what they have been able to do battle corruption. Thats the exception in the world. Us foreign assistance although it had institutional strengthening on the agenda for a long time, even the Reagan Administration had a program in Central America in 1980s, we still have no rule of law in Central America, by and large. Im wondering if in addition to what youre doing we should take another hard look at what were trying to do, visavis strengthening institutions in Central America, in this hemisphere, and around the world. At the end of the day, theyre day, theyre the ones that have to do the hard work of upholding their own officials accountable. How you do that is a real challenge. But i do the support and that foreign aid look at that issue more directly connect i agree with you completely. Its impossible to see in advance what the president skinny budget, 36 cut in the state departments budget. Now, let alone, we have major commitments that i support and help in food, that i support, and then we have a small amount of money goes to the programs youre talking about, democracy and protecting institutions. In many parts of the world, we have virtually no resources being sent, where they needed the most. In africa, you have very little dollars being sent on democracy growth. Every time i visit an african country, the administration asks for more money. We could use it. To underscore the point, i agree with you completely but you have to reverse what the president s come in with and my concern is that congress will not pass the 36 cut. They will not. I am convinced about that. But if they use that as the yardstick, all of a sudden the 5 cut the 5 cut that the look bad. A 5 cut is terrible. We have some work to do. Were trying to strengthen and i have some ideas how we can make it more relevant. Our in hemisphere is that we have almost every country on our hemisphere are democratic countries, except for a few exceptions. Those exceptions the corruption is widespread, venezuela is close to a field day. I meeting with the opposition people today from venezuela to see what we can do. The economy is falling apart and its extremely corrupt and we have to deal with that into a failed democracy. Were hoping the charter is appropriate. Of course, cubic cuba is not a democratic country and they have widespread corruption in cuba. I was with the foreign administrator from mexico and thats a democratic country and their fighting corruption. In some cases, their winning and others, theyre not. The cartels are notorious for how theyre able to infiltrate societies and Police Officers and judges and how the drug trade is facilitated through these criminal elements. We have to be able to fight that. I was in the northern triangle triangle the leaders are really trying to fight corruption. Theyre trying to do the right thing and bringing in outside help. The drug cartels, the gang activities are so inbred into their way of life there that we have real real challenges in order to work this out. Its causing extreme violence, migration which is affecting our entire hemisphere and certainly, the United States. Your. Is well taken, our Vice President biden initiated a program in the northern triangle and i strongly supported it. It was not as transformational as we needed, i think, we need to transform these countries even more inviting corruption. Hi. Vanessa. Im american but i was born in venezuela and i work a lot and hemisphere issues. I wanted to hear more specifically about the interest in the application talks. What happens with the corruption that is highlighted with the regime is more and more potent in typing that perhaps. It resonates more, you can see it on social media. So, how exactly would the us as foreign aid for instance help implement rule of law . Some of this is a cultural problem not just of corruption . Venezuela is extremely frustrating because its not the will of the people being implemented. Now theyre blocking the pilot from doing anything. Its a very dangerous situation and whats happening. The country is on a blink brink of failure. Its an urgent issue. Reportedly, almost two thirds of the country of our hemisphere are a prepared to take action. We just have to get a few more countries to act and i think we can take some rather dramatic action to venezuela. How you implement reform is not easy. I agree with you. You have a history, people get their services by pain bribes people would would get safety by pain bribes. The hotel was i stayed at was safe for pain bribes. Its not easy to figure out how to combat that. Were suggesting that use the circumstances of the country, not needing norms, not, not our norms, but recognized norms for anticorruption and how do we focus our other agencies, including development assistance, to bring about the changes. Thats the purpose of this legislation we get the information and we require the agencies to use that information. If youre not in an acceptable level, how do we target the use of our relationship with our country to bring about reforms that will elevate the standard inviting corruption. Weve done this now it aid in the past but it hasnt been more in the interest of one other than a document in need of the country. Thats were trying to do do this legislation to have an organized way to have a game plan in a country, to get them to a better level of fighting corruption and recognizing that this wont be quick, it will take time. Good morning. Im with the Federal Reserve board. Thank you senator for your remarks. I want to ask about a topic that you mentioned in your remarks about bipartisanship, which is a a challenge in the senate and congress today. What do you see as the rate forward . Thats about as difficult a question that i can Channel Energy to think about change. The house can operate in a partisan manner because they have a tradition where the rules committee can determine what is done, as long as they have a majority vote, they can move forward. The challenge in the house of representatives is twofold they have a challenge of partisanship and now they have a challenge that the Majority Party could not have in their own party, causing a division. That could lead to more bipartisanship in the house because, i would hope, it would be better for speaker ryan to work with democrats rather than the far right of his party. The challenge to that is that he could leave lose his speakership. The senate is nowhere near in partisan. The members Work Together. I work with republicans on every issue. All of our committees, most most of our committees, not all, work between the minority and majority. We go over for anything is done and we almost always reach consensus. Not always, but almost always. Our members Work Together. Its not anywhere near as partisan in the senate as it appears by the articles that are being written. This is not a good day to talk about it. [laughter] this is a very sad day. Its not sad because of the majority vote for the Supreme Court nominee the sad part is that the rules were changed without democrats and republicans agreeing to be changed. We need to change our senate rules. Are senate rules have been if an individual senator can block legislation, thats wrong. For a senator to be able to block, its wrong. We havent havent change that. We should talk about that and recognizing that therell be days the democrats are in the minority and that some days the republicans will be in the minority. Thats what missing today. Its not like it just happened today, its been going on for at least pretty dramatically for at least the least the last eight years. Its time for grownups to get together and leaders to lead and for us to figure out ways we could make the senate work the way it should work. Im familiar and chevalier. Good morning senator. As you know, the the fca has fought remarkably, led to International Conventions and now similar laws and other countries. Since 1977, weve developed, as you indicated, a greater appreciation of the economic cost, of how it contributes to other International Crimes and how it undercuts the rule of law. My question is arguably, one of the most negative things we could do, would be to repeal or to substantially dilute the f cpa. There are occasional suggestions to that effect. Do you see a sense of that, a likelihood of that, in the congress . And how would you react to that . I would think that there would be strong resistance to repealing it. Youre going to repeal foreign corrupt practices . [laughter] i just dont think we would do that. Theres a greater danger that we might try to weaken it or not enforce it. That would be an area that we need to watch closely. As President Trump talks about new trade arrangements with other countries, what we would like to see and do is just the opposite. We know that in Government Procurement there is need for the United States to have a stronger position with our trading partners because we dont participate in corruption. Therefore, lets have a better way to deal with government supported enterprises and deal with Government Procurements. That should be part of a trade agenda. But just go backwards and say that will accept corrupt practices that is an acceptable standard to pay to get contracts, no. I just dont believe congress would not move in the direction thank you so much senator. For your leadership and for your eloquence and your clarity in discussing these issues. Thank you, shannon. I work for a Coalition Formally known as the. The biggest obstacle i find inviting corruption is impunity. I say this, not only because i work for an international for 70 many years, but also because they grew up in india. I went to it in corrupt Education System and the opportunities to be were limited. To fight that impunity is to reduce the ability of corrupt officials to enjoy the us. We are a major enabler of that. We have the ability to set up a country in us a legal entity without knowing the economic benefits and ultimately who owned the entity. What leadership can we expect from this congress on the issue of Beneficial Ownership trust . Thank you, and for that. This is something under the Banking Committee not a Foreign Relations committee. Ive been working closely with our counterparts on banking as how we can coordinate what we do on Foreign Policy with what they do and banking. I mentioned to you that i was at the National Security council fighting corruption and this is a major area they felt we need to reform our laws to have a more effective way of preventing hiding of assets here in the United States. There is need for reform and some of the technical aspects have been explained to me and im fully on board with trying to make the law more effective in reading out those who are using companies to hide legal assets. You are right, it needs to be done. Were working with the Banking Committee to see if we can get that done. Good morning. Im steven from mccarty associates. Following up on some of your cut comments. Is there included in your legislation or somewhere to use more robustly the tools that we have in the Treasury Department and the Justice Department and other indictments to go after some of these National Leaders that have become so powerful and use that to their benefit . The answer is yes, we have the inner legislation but it is vague in our legislation because of jurisdiction of committees. We do require interagency reporting and working together with a common agenda to deal with progress in a country. Everything you identified is very much in the Agency Coordination issue that we anticipate would be part of what we do. Then there needs to be oversight by congress. One of the matters that im pushing hard for on our committee is to have oversight hearings. We do on human trafficking. Weve had some pretty good oversight hearings. We called it out and as a result we made the corrections. This years report was much more objective, as it should have been. Same thing needs to be done on corruption. If this becomes law, then we need to bring in these agencies and make sure that theyre doing things consistent with what the report shows needs to be done. Youre exactly right in what you identified as the root cause that have to be dealt with inviting corruption. Hi senator. Im a lifelong resident of maryland i think you for your leadership in maryland. I was wondering if you think theres an opportunity for the United States to use of leadership and other international organizations, world bank, un, to perhaps lead from behind as the us loses its moral high ground on its issue but to help the rest of the world Pay Attention to the issue of corruption . Thats an excellent. Not just because her a maryland or, its a good. [laughter] it really is important to sensitize the international organizations. As i mentioned earlier, i spent a lot of time with the organization in europe, the oce, and we focused on corruption in that organization. Its important. Thats one of our missions, human rights in the government and the government. We find at times pragmatic decisions are made in corruption is not as high as it should be. In the International Bank weve had conversations about corruption and it was good conversations. But we are the major player in the international organizations. We dominate. If we dont raise it, its unlikely that it will get the attention it needs. If us leadership. I dont think mr. Trump will be directing our participants on priorities within these organizations. I really dont think thats necessarily the case. We have to make sure that those that are that corruption is raised. Thats why, i hope, that what happens under president obama is a National Security priority we need to get that into the Top Administration. Therefore, instructing every agency to make alec elevating ways to deal with this. When youre making it alone, you have leverage. When you have that leverage you can demand certain types of performance and in that performance you can accomplish what the country needs to do and is part of the strategy to fight corruption. Its an excellent point. Joe with all of her global. I lived in kyiv the year before the revolution working for the global fund to fight aids and malaria. I organized a press conference to suspend a 100 milliondollar grant that ukraine was getting because it was corrupt in. We gave it was several months before the revolution and i would like to think that i played a small role. [my point is, and beth or haley mentioned that the congress is going to look at the power of the purse in the un and the un reform agenda, will you look at the successful examples like the global fund where weve seen in ministers of health thrown in jail. Is that an example you can look at . Thank you. I will bring that out to ambassador attention. Shes under extreme pressure to reduce budgets. Thats unfortunate. Im all for more efficient budgets, i really am. We can do things with less cost than today. I agree with that. To have as a goal a certain number without any rationale behind it, is wrong. The pressure on our participation in national organizations, the budget numbers are going to be unrealistic. Its going to be forcing them to do things in the name of reform that are really going to be counterproductive. But, yes, we will try to do that. What i was impressed by investor haley with her conversations that weve had which was before our committee and had a conversation recently shes not trying to put the United States out of compliance that would prevent us from participating but shes not attempting to withdrawal from any of the organizations that will make individual individual evaluations but she wants to understand how the organizations work first. Shes working at inefficient missions to correct them or stop them. Thats not an unrealistic position to take. Obviously, most of the missions that are done by the United Nations are critically important humanitarian, we dont want to and that but always remember when we had bill gates and bill clinton testified before Foreign Relations committee when they said, if your money is going to corruption, pull it out of the country. You dont want to find, as much as you want to help, youre youre not helping by funding corruption. You have to be prepared to leave. If you found an alternative thats always the best way but if you cant find an alternative, then you have to make hard decisions. We have time for one more question. I work for a had fun. Shannon, thank you for organizing and print one for your leadership. The definition for corruption has gotten narrower over time. With cases like citizens united, obama having the First Organization to advance his agenda and the murders with the make America Great nonprofit that is doing those advocacy campaigns that trump one to promote his presidency, what are your thoughts about how that affects your work in fighting corruption . Thank you for your question. Look, i think, america has compromised its effectiveness globally in fighting the principal values that made our country great. That is Good Government. We govern for people. We dont govern for ourselves. Its we the people. Our system was built with the understanding that there are realities among individuals that are in power. We have checks and balances. No one is above the law, the the president can be indicted for a crime and we have since seen how it worked over the history of our country with the checks and balances work. It truly independent judiciary and an independent congress. I dont know of many other cant. Democracy is what im talking about. We put a real priority on the importance of the individual. I couldnt agree with you more, theres been decisions. It open the floodgates for dark money and contains which was terrible. When people come to me, other country leaders, and how they form their free election system i tell them dont pattern them how we do our fundraisers. Theres better ways than that. It was a fundamental decision made by the Supreme Court that we will protect a business right over an individual right, which to me makes no sense. Theres been some troubling things in all three branches of government. But we the people still control. As if seen around the world, we the people wont tolerate corruption. We wont. They will come a. That theyll be on the streets, including the United States. They will not tolerate corruption. In all of our interest to figure out a way to make sure that we put in place though systems that will prevent that it is very frustrating with President Trump. I really didnt think the people would allow him to win the presidency without releasing his tax returns and the president without divesting personal wealth. I really didnt think that would be a factor. But now his docs are coming out that may be connected, that could change. We have to continue to stand for our principles and be willing to defend our principles. Yes, one of the things that is particularly important in a democracy is how you get the populace to understand that they have an interest in these issues. That something that many of us have not been as full as we need to be, as we saw the results of the selection. We really need to do a better job in convincing the people that the stability, the security of our country depends upon honesty and countries like ukraine and brazil and like mexico, they see it in mexico as the drugs are coming in and killing our children. You can connect that. We can stop the illegal flow of drugs coming in from mexico by stopping the corruption in the cartels working with mexico to have that happen. Or we can get rid of the gang violence. I met with a gang leader when i was in honduras who was under fbi trying to cut a deal and he was telling me what his role was. His goal was to come into maryland and set up sister gangs. If we get that message out people will be interested in what were doing in honduras. I think we have to connect more of the dots. The United States is the greatest country in the world because of our values. We are in the position where we can make a huge difference. Weve always had challenges and i would acknowledge this is one of the most interesting challenges ive ever had in my life. We figured out ways to deal with those challenges. Im not going to pretend that damage has not been done. Damage has been done to United States. We need to figure out a way to advance these causes and i believe we will and youll find democrats and republicans rallying behind these principles that will allow america to not only be an international to do at home what is right in order to protect these essential values. Thank you mac. [applause] cia director mike pompeo afternoon
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