I want to see it in the context of the United States remaining engaged in Iraq, at least for some period, until Iraq achieves stability.

The Provincial Reconstruction Teams--as our troop presence is diminished and as we drawdown, I'd ask you whether or not you think the PRT's role has to be augmented because of that.

I wanted to move to the security issue, which each of you have mentioned more than once, I think.

I think it's--look, and I think this is an important point and sometimes at hearings we don't have the record very clear.

One question that I have had, and others have had, is what's happening at the senior levels of the government.

Well, thank you. We'll never know the exact number, but at least we're in agreement that there is a consensus, at least about a range.

The United States is directly responsible for the displacement of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Iraqis.

we have a both a moral and a security interest in ensuring the safety and welfare of Iraqi refugees and IDPs.

this is an issue that has not received near enough attention here in Washington.

That's a big number.

this isn't just about Iraqi refugees, it's about how our country's policy will be carried out in Iraq.

The hearing of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Asian and Central Asian Affairs will now come to order.

So how do you make that work in the context of a desire for national standards, the desire for a national commitment, with a tradition and the reality, not just a theory, but the reality of local control, local decisionmaking?

I just wanted to make sure that was on the record----

That means that we have at least $1 billion still sitting? Is that right?

I want to offer my enthusiast support for H.R. 847.

Mr. Chairman, if I can further----

isn't it true in your readings that you have seen my state be notorious for, one, poor defense--so let me just say it; I will put it on the record--of indigent as it relates to death penalty cases?