those relationships are critical and they are important and i encourage you to continue to do that. especially with the members who will be inclined to be supportive but may not be fully aware of all the things that are out there and that are said that are not accurate but the state of affairs in the region or about the differences between the different parties involved in the region. it really is important early on in the members career to try to get in front of them and state with facts and figures in historical data that backs up strong us israel alliance. >> i hope you have been taking notes. senator rubio, thank you so much for your time. let's give him another round of applause. [applause] >> good morning, a back. thank you for that warm welcome. i'm honored to be here once again at the policy conference. [applause] let me take a moment of personal

privilege to say that sometimes god puts a goliath in your path to find the david within you. i found that david within me. [applause] but we all know that even david had a slingshot and many of you here today were part of my slingshot so i am very grateful and thankful. [applause] it is no secret that i have taken a lot of heat over the years standing up for what i believe in the when my children ask me if i knew what was going to happen what i have taken those same stands in my answer is a resolute yes. absolutely. [applause] standing here --

[applause] standing here i am inspired by all of you, the thousands of aipac members who dedicate your time and energy in support america's everlasting bond with israel and i am proud to see that once again we have hundreds of aipac members here on from the great state of new jersey. [cheering and applause] that includes my dear friend and aipac newest president, doctor freedman. as i am sure most of you know and if not you will get to understand he is a real stalwart advocate for israel and a tenacious leader who will continue to serve aipac wall. congratulations. [applause] as we celebrate his success i also want to take a moment to celebrate the life and legacy of a new jersey and who is no longer with us.

bonnie. he was a true friend, a champion for this community and a fierce advocate for truth and justice. to all of those who feel his absence, may his memory, as i say, be a blessing. [applause] i see lonnie's legacy as a look out into the ocean of people gathered here today, people of all ages, bases and political persuasions. your commitment to our common cause in your presence and visits send a message across washington to jerusalem and throughout the world that the united states and israel share alliance is unbreakable and ironclad. i especially, i especially want to recognize the 3600 students who made their way to washington this year. it is important that you are

here. in recent days we have been reminded of the powers that rest in the hands of america's youth. when young people stand up and speak out for what they believe in the world cannot help but listen. to the thousands of students came to our nation's capital to participate in our democracy, i salute you. i thank you and i ask everyone here to join me in applauding you for participating. [applause] all of us come together clear eyed and fully aware of the challenging times in which we live and we have seen anti-semitism, white nationalism and other deciduous breeds of hatred on the rise from the streets of charlottesville to the capitals of europe. we have seen ever-increasing

volatility in the middle east and the refugee crisis unseen since world war ii. we have seen iranian aggression throughout the region compelling terrorist proxies ever closer to israel's borders. we confront these challenges together and as we do so i continue to be guided by my belief that it is in the national security interest to have a strong unwavering alliance with the state of israel, the one true democracy in a sea of autocracy, a steadfast ally of the united states in a nation of incredible innovation and economic sway in the country most likely to be voting with us in common cause in international forums. most of you know that i have resumed my role as the ranking member of the senate foreign relations committee. [applause] and i want to commend my friend,

senator ben cardin, a maryland for his steadfast leadership. [applause] and in my renewed capacity i will be a continuing champion for the values that we share. much like the bond between the united states and israel, i do not back away from my commitment and i do not waver in my belief and even when the political winds of change and even when it may be tough for others to stand up for israel i will always stand up for fundamental truths, one the security of the united states is a strong when our bond with israel is strong. two, the jewish people have a right to live in peace, security and prosperity in the indisputable homeland of their ancestors. [applause] and three, israel has the right to defend herself in the united states will always ensure that

they have the capabilities necessary to protect herself and her borders. [applause] we know that israel has always been surrounded by enemies but today the stakes are higher. risks are greater and the threats are more deadly in increasingly asked essential. years even talking about threats iran poses to israel. he heard the anti- israel vitriol echoing out of to run and have seen its proxies pushing closer and closer to israel's borders and we know exactly why iran continues to expand in syria invest so much in president assad's dictatorship. iranian leaders transferring weapons has let them build a land bridge.

ron views the syrian battlefield as a training iranian proxy forces devoted to a singular mission -- israel's instruction. russia has helped enable expansion in syria by prolonging the grip on power. hand-in-hand criminal and terrorist, vladimir putin and president assad has cleared a path to regime to expand its military footprint. make no mistake, iran is building an advanced military presence in syria and we risk willfully disregarding this reality if we cling to a failed policy of negotiating with russia. that is precisely what we are doing continue to seek out agreement to de-escalate areas in syria. these agreements with russia are dangerous and in fact they are paving the way for iran to stay in syria and that is why is well past time for the president to recognize that in syria here at home or around the world russia

is not a partner for stability or peace at the end of the day. [applause] russia has made it clear that it's alliances and it's made it's alliances clear with the slaughter of civilians dropping bombs on hospitals and homes and minutes and aired combos and working to care for people under siege and farmer up and continues to exploit the migration to sow discord throughout western europe and continue his campaign to undermine the post-world war ii international order. links between moscow and damascus and ron are clear. there will be no international response to the russian backed iranian and we saw last month when they sent a drone into the airspace and the assad regime turns its russian air defense on an israeli fighter jet.

of course, israel responded with necessary and appropriate force in defending herself and we applaud the precision conduct of the israeli defense forces. we must -- we must be on a typical in our support for our allies. we must assert our global leadership driven by our principles and values and security and we cannot concede this leadership to our allies. indeed, president is happy to keep the administration wringing its hands while i iran in next door to israel. this situation is untenable and absolutely unacceptable. as iran grows its preprint in syria and battles hardened fighters return to lebanon we know that hezbollah continues to build new missile production facilities in advance weapons and plans to direct and israel.

in the face of this growing threat it is no wonder why there is increasingly talk in israel of the next war. this is not a war that israel wants which nonetheless we may be forced to fight and if that they should come the world should understand this there is absolutely no moral equivalency between israel, a peaceloving vibrant democracy in innovative economy with so much to offer the world and hezbollah, a terrorist organization that his views hate, trains martyrs, holds the lebanese state hostage and receive support and direction from the iranian regime. there is no moral equivalence we know that israel would prefer to keep the sword of freedom she's but if she is forced to take on this fight we know where the united states will stand. we will stand on the side of our once true democratic ally in the middle east, the state of

israel. [applause] these growing threats demand that we do everything we can now to push back against iran continued aggression. i spent the better part of my more than two and a half decades in congress working to support strategic diplomatic multilateral efforts to confront iran. that is why last year i worked the bipartisan group of my colleagues to offer and pass a countering american adversary for sanctions act also known as [inaudible]. at a time when bipartisan division is too often the norm in washington, democrats and republicans in the senate voted by a margin of 98-two to give the administration more tools to sanction iran for its imperious behavior. [applause] i know that our success is in large part because of the aipac members in this room. yet despite the bipartisan call

for action by congress in menstruation has yet to fully use the tools we provided nor have they developed and implemented a comprehensive strategy as called for in the law while confronting iranian aggression. i hope together we can send a loud, clear, unified message to the white house impose the sanctions, use the tools congress gave you and do it without delay. [applause] now, speaking of iran and sanctions let's turn to the nuclear a court. everyone here knows where i stood on the iran nuclear agreement. [applause] i had serious --

[applause] [applause] i had serious doubts about the regime in exchange for short term limits on the nuclear program in those concerns are evermore true to me today as they were then. for now, iran has complied -- >> you can catch the last few minutes of the new jersey senator online. we taking out to the capital for lawmakers remarks. >> good afternoon everyone. it's always a lot of talk these days about how partisan the atmosphere is. this week will be dealing with the bill that, i think, breaks through the notion that there can be bipartisan cooperation to do important things.

the chairman of banking has been able to put together a re- visitation of the dodd frank measure bringing relief to small and medium-sized banks and credit unions and has generated considerable democratic support so i asked him to join us today to tell you what the latest is on that as we move forward. >> thank you very much. i also want to thank my colleagues on both the public in democratic side of the strong showing we had today to move to the debate of this bill on the senate floor. there have been negotiations on this bill for probably six years now or more. we've been working very hard to build a bipartisan solution and i'm very proud of the solution and i continue to hold out high hopes that we will get a similar vote at the end as we have at the beginning. just quickly and then i will be

willing to ask questions. this bill is called the economic growth regulatory reform and consumer protection act. all three of those are critical parts of it. it is not just the reform bill but it focuses on significant efforts to try to grow capital formation and to increase access to credit and to increase the ability for small businesses to grow and to establish themselves and to allow individuals to have a smoother pathway toward their own efforts to either buy a home or have an addition to their home or engage in some other important thing to them by getting better access to credit and available capital. with regard to a number of the allegations that have been made about the bill i would like to address some of those quickly and again, throw it open to questions. this bill focuses on the smaller financial institutions in

america and i know a lot of the attack is this will roll back the regulatory protections that were put into place and deal with abuses on wall street. there is very, very little in this bill that reaches to the megabanks or the bigger banks and, in fact, the primary focus is on credit unions and community banks and the smaller tier of our regional banks. again, it addresses the fact that many of us have talked about for years and that is that although a regulatory system today was passed and enacted in terms of alleging that it was to address the abuses on wall street many of the targets and recipients of the impact of the bill of the regulatory system were smaller banks and credit unions and the like. that did not have the capacity to deal with it in fact did not present either the business

models for the risk models that were required to deal with on regulatory basis. this bill seeks to right size the regulatory system in our country and to allow our community banks and credit unions to nourish and by doing so to provide the necessary and appropriate access to capital and to credit that the people who live in our communities should have. with that let me stop and throw it open to questions. >> [inaudible] [inaudible] >> first of all the level is set at 250 billion, as you just

indicated, it does not include all the regional banks and doesn't include any of the megabanks, if you will. that was a negotiated level. it could have been put higher or put lower but it was negotiated level where there was the greatest level of is that we provided the most assistance we could without increasing risk in the market that there would be some kind of a difficulty. let me make something else there. this is the rest of the answer to your question. there has been this notion put out there that by exempting the banks from the [inaudible] process that we have somehow eliminated a regulatory protection that is in place. a couple of points. for small, many experts have said that that doesn't increase any increase in the system because that zone is not legitimately candidates but even if they were the bill allows the

federal reserve to reimpose any kind of standard all the way up to the designation level if they choose to. at the federal reserve and the regular tours the risk that they believe they need to address this bill not only allows but encourages them to reach back and address that risk. the argument that somehow we are deregulating that whole system is simply not true. i would also say that there is still a tremendous amount of regulatory supervision and oversight before you get to the [inaudible] regulation and oversight and all of that regulation and safety and sound in the system remains solidly in place. yes. >> [inaudible]

>> we have had conversations with members of the house and like i said this bill has been in the process of construction for over six years and i personally have been talking to virtually all of the players. i cannot tell you that any kind of resolution will happen with the senate passing the bill has been achieved and we will simply have to wait until we move further forward in the process to know the answers to what we can get on their. yes. >> different topic, senator mcconnell. >> i will be back up later. >> more bank questions? >> [inaudible] >> definitely those kinds of issues are relevant to the bill but the question is whether we can get bipartisan agreement on them. i probably should have explained this better but this is a bipartisan bill which means a

lot of things that the republicans would like to have put in are not there and a lot of the things the democrats would like to put in are not there. the things that we been able to find consensus on here as i have indicated primarily in the smaller, financial institution area are the areas where we have the most success. yes, those are relevant issues and the question is just whether we can get. >> will bring you back to the capital for lawmakers remarks can had now to the floor of the senate traveling back in. life here on c-span2.