Transcripts For CSPAN2 Senator Cardin Speaks At Council On F

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. There