When is that process going to improve?

I am troubled with the reality that this same fate is probably going to continue to many more Americans.

The Navy yard shooter had multiple previous arrests and yet was still somehow able to obtain clearance. How can this be?

I want to say again that I don't see how OPM can do anything but recommend to the President that there be lifetime protection.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

So I must say that the very least we owe Federal employees, given this breach, it would seem to me is lifetime protection for data that cannot be changed.

I'm one of the last remaining people who voted for No Child Left Behind in the Congress of the United States, and we caught plenty of hell for requiring too much testing.

The difference is the State is the authority that enforces that requirement, not the Federal Government.

I hope you'll treat this as a partnership between the Federal Government and the States, not a dictatorship from the Federal Government to the States.

my district is known as the salad bowl capital of the world, and we grow something like 70 percent of all the lettuce in the United States.

should we not be teaching them how to fish so that they can, indeed, produce professionals?

my feeling here is that Secretary Vilsack said the other day that the privilege we all have to choose a profession is because we have people growing food for us, and we do not have to go out there and grow it.

This ought to be a Republican issue. This is the most expensive food in the world you want to cut, squeeze and trim.

It is absolutely essential for these refugee camps to make sure that the food is there.

I feel very strongly, we're all hired to do our job responsibly.

I wish our former colleague Jo Ann Emerson were here today. She was a very active member of this committee, a Republican from Missouri, and she and I were involved in the first bipartisan Cuba Working Group.

Does the small request for the increase in NOP keep pace with what is happening with the farm, ranch and consumer needs in organic?

I want the Department to tell me that it will direct adequate resources to ensure that the agricultural export markets impacted by LBAM quarantines will be protected going forward.