we still have not received the complete report or virtually any accountability for the surrender and the total failure that was Afghanistan

Mr. Under Secretary, do you think that Congress deserves this report?

the DoD cannot for instance, risk an armored brigade in combat running out of fuel because it is only allowed to acquire net-zero fuel and none is readily available

it sounds to me like you are burning the tax dollars at the altar of environmental extremists

Somehow, we are spending more on defense than we ever have, but we are ignoring real national security threats like China, Iran...

Sadly, this budget is a continuation of the wokening and weakening of our military.

let's talk about what really should be focused on

This is out of the playbook of authoritarianism, of government intervention in private business, saying, you don`t do what I want -- therefore, I will directly penalize your company.

Penalizing a company for not bending your political will is wrong. It is Soviet. It is authoritarian.

This is a playbook out of Putin. And we saw where this goes. This is co-opting private companies, saying you got to bend to my will, or we`re going to directly penalize you.

This is authoritarian and socialist and kind of creepy, you know, going after these companies over, you know, cultural issues.

I think our message is simply, there is consensus around the basic fundamental principles that members of Congress should be serving their stock portfolios, they should be serving that people.

At the end of the day, while there are other steps I think the administration can take, there are limits under -- you know, in terms of the President`s executive authority, and fundamentally, Congress has to step up and begin legislating…

I`m grateful that the President took the important steps that he announced today with respect to the regulation on ghost guns, the finalization of that rule, and then, of course, the announcement regarding a permanent director for ATF…

I think it`s going to take a multi-pronged approach. Some of it clearly is going to be gun violence prevention legislation along the lines of what I`ve talked about.

I couldn`t agree with you more. Obviously, no one can make a cogent argument in opposition to that regulation. It is a basic common sense step that we ought to take.

90 percent of the American public support expanded background checks. That includes a lot of gun owners. It includes a lot of Republicans.

the most important thing we can do, I think, is give our regulatory and enforcement agencies, the ATF, the Department of Justice, local prosecutors the tools that they need to combat gun trafficking in our communities and enhance the…