This government spends over $70 billion a year on intelligence. And I hate hearing the word 'surprise' in any hearing.

Putin does understand weakness, and takes advantage of it.

I want to thank you both for your emphasis on the importance of the effect of sequestration on your commands and on your ability to carry out your responsibilities.

What people don't realize is, two-thirds of the Federal budget isn't subject to sequestration.

the key to stopping the flow of illegal immigrants into this country, is to make their countries more attractive places to live.

I generally meet with CIA personnel around the world, and I have found them to be uniformly patriotic, intelligent, passionate about their work on behalf of this country.

The Arctic is an important area of policy, and I know you have been looking at it.

To build the finest ship with the deadliest battery and to send it afloat with a raw crew, no matter how brave they are individually would be ensure disaster if a foe of average capacity were encountered.

As I understand it, it's actually compromised--our failure to be a member of that treaty is actually compromising our ability, for example, to stake claims to where the Continental Shelf is.

isn't it a net-zero immigration from Mexico at this point?

If we aren't able to avoid the sequester, are American lives being put at risk?

I would like to see a little more detail about how you are going to tackle that.

the Russians are making huge moves in the Arctic with regard to new bases, with regard to new airfields, new Arctic command, claiming territory over huge swaths of the Arctic.

I think it is the next frontier of warfare.

I don't want to return to the post-September 11 days when we had a lot of intelligence capability, but they weren't talking to each other.

I wonder if we shouldn't be developing a theory of deterrence similar to nuclear deterrence in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

the Arctic is emerging as an enormously important and strategic area.

I am concerned that our cyber-defense system is just that, it is defense, and that we don't have an offensive capability.