Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), a senior Democrat on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, today submitted the following statement at a Foreign Relations hearing to examine the continuing crisis in Darfur. The full text of his remarks as prepared for delivery is below:

Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you for holding this hearing today. The crisis in Darfur remains one of the greatest humanitarian disasters of our time, and I believe that it is vitally important the United States remains actively engaged in bringing to an end one of the worst acts of genocide since Rwanda.

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics Affairs, today chaired a hearing of the full Foreign Relations Committee to consider several nominations important to the hemisphere.

The full text of Senator Dodd’s prepared opening remarks is below:

Good morning.  Today, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs is meeting to hold its second hearing on the “HOPE for Homeowners Act” and other plans to address the historic levels of foreclosures the American people are experiencing. 

Remarks as Prepared: This morning, the Committee examines student lending. 

Approximately one year ago, in this room, I asked a Governor of the Federal Reserve a simple question: would the subprime mortgage market meltdown spread to other sectors of the credit markets.  The answer was no.  We on this Committee were told that the crisis was “contained.”

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Remarks as Prepared: Good morning.  Today, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs is meeting to hold a hearing entitled “Turmoil in the U.S. Credit Markets: Examining Proposals to Mitigate Foreclosures and Restore Liquidity to the Mortgage Markets.”  Last week, we had an excellent hearing to look at one result of the turmoil we are experiencing in the capital markets – the decision of the federal government to commit $29 billion in taxpayer money to rescue Bear Stearns.  Today, we are focusing more on the other end of the spectrum – the impact of the crisis on homeowners.

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Chairman of its Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics Affairs, is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the United States Naval Academy’s Foreign Affairs Conference.  In his address, Dodd will lay out a blueprint charting a new course for U.S.—Latin America relations in the 21^st Century.  Senator Dodd is widely respected as one of the Senate’s foremost experts on Latin America.   

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Remarks as Prepared: Today, this Committee will carefully consider recent actions taken by our federal financial regulators in response to the ongoing turmoil in our markets and our economy.  Much of our focus today will center on a period of 96 hours—mostly over the weekend of March 15^th and 16^th.  During this momentous 4-day period, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Treasury Department took dramatic and unprecedented action to stabilize our markets, to infuse them with liquidity and to prevent additional financial firms from being swept under the riptide of panic that threatened to have taken hold of our markets.

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Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, today spoke on the Senate floor on the housing crisis, the housing stimulus package proposed by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and his efforts as Chairman to curb the unprecedented wave of foreclosures in order to help Americans keep their homes.

Senators Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT), Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT), Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) called on the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee to fully fund the Long Island Sound Restoration Act and the Long Island Sound Stewardship Act at $40 million and $25 million respectively for Fiscal Year 2009.  In a letter to Subcommittee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Ranking Member Wayne Allard (R-CO), the Senators underscored the importance of these programs in restoring the environmental health of the Long Island Sound and protecting and preserving the Sound’s shorelines.

“The President and his advisors recently put up $30 billion of taxpayer funds to help one company on Wall Street.  That may or may not have been appropriate – I intend to investigate the deal at a Banking Committee hearing that I will chair on Thursday.  But this much is true: if the President and his advisors can find $30 billion to help one company on Wall Street, they can surely find a way to help millions of Americans facing higher mortgage payments and falling home prices.