I can't imagine knowingly bringing to this committee an end strength that wouldn't give us at least one-to-two and we want to get to one-to-three.

We appreciate your commitment to providing our soldiers with improved small arms at both close combat range and long distance shots in the mountains of Afghanistan.

I am concerned obviously for the morale of the troops, for the families, their concerns and expectations of a career that could be in jeopardy.

Mr. Speaker, last week, I participated in a congressional delegation to visit troops and fact-find in Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, and Afghanistan. Immediately upon arrival, we were given an optimistic assessment of the region by Ambassador…

I share the concern of Congresswoman Hartzler, too, that we are dealing with a well-financed enemy, sadly a very determined, educated enemy.

Again, I want to thank you.

the equipment I have is now 5 generations removed, and I say that complimentary.

I thank the gentlelady for yielding me this time, and I want to thank her for organizing this Special Order in honor of Black History Month. But I want to take a few minutes to talk about the future. Last December, when faced with the…

I think that supervisors will be paying more attention to this in the future and we should pay more attention to it.

I can say that, yes.

I do not agree with the view that this is likely to lead to another crisis.

It sounds like the conclusion of your argument is that taxes should be zero and I would not argue that.

I am pleased to present the Federal Reserve's Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress.

the long-term imbalances are not just a long-term risk. They are a near and present danger.

What I need to emphasize here is that that does not mean that QE will continue until 2017 or easy money will continue until 2017.

We have rejected that approach and we are committed to not letting inflation go above sort of the normal level of around 2 percent in the medium term.

If you do not do that, it would have very negative effects on financial markets and on our economy.

We want to be sure that price stability is maintained, that inflation remains low and stable.