We have never lived in a more turbulent, more complicated time with regard to terrorism  and how to keep our nation safe. I believe we have taken great strides in moving toward a more peaceful world with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of  Action, the historic deal that blocks every pathway Iran has toward developing and employing a nuclear weapon. After great deliberation, I supported the plan after reading it, and I was pleased to hear in January 2016 that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) verified that Iran is complying with the demands we made and is scaling down their nuclear program to one that remains exclusively peaceful.

Effectively blocking Iran’s pathways to a nuclear weapon doesn’t represent the whole of the challenges we have in the foreign policy arena – and there are bad actors around the globe, both under a flag and without a country. In Congress, I will continue to support policies that first exhausts all diplomatic options and uses the declaration of war and putting American boots on the ground as the absolute last resort. I will continue to urge my colleagues to be more realistic about working with the executive branch to free up resources that destroy ISIS. Most importantly, I will continue ensure that we do not repeat the foreign policy mistakes of the past that spend trillions of dollars and cost us hundreds of thousands of civilian and soldier’s lives.