I have no objection; I can stay 10 minutes, 20 minutes. I would like for the Senator from Oklahoma Dr. Coburn to have a chance to explain what he wanted to say. I don't mean to interrupt.

May I ask unanimous consent that the doctor be afforded another 10 minutes. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. President, Dr. Coburn is a tough act to follow, and I am not going to try to do that. But I am happy to serve with him. We come from different parts of the country, different kinds of training, upbringing, and careers, but we have…

The problem here is pretty simple. Democrats need to support entitlement reform that saves money, saves these programs for the long haul, and is consistent with our obligation to look out for the least of these.

Republicans need to embrace tax reform that provides some certainty and predictability for businesses and for investors in this country, but at the same time, generates some revenues.

And the overarching goal of the 2016 process is to ultimately get to a place where a legitimate national election is possible.

There have been developments in the region, both in Kenya and Somalia that I think called for a classified briefing.

Somalia is slowly emerging from the abyss.

Ultimately, the primary architects of what peace, democracy, and development efforts look like must be the Somali people.

What should we be doing here forward to ensure that al-Shabaab loses the financial support to continue operations?

In less than 18 months, we were able to bring that country back into a democratic country moving forward because of an African-led process supported by us.

A steady transition from 20 years of statelessness, lawlessness, and violence to a functioning democracy is part of the objective of this hearing.

Building on airlift capacity is, I think, a long-term goal we all share.

There has been real progress in dealing with the famine and the humanitarian crisis, in dealing with piracy which has been dramatically curtailed.

Today's hearing comes almost exactly two decades after the battle of Mogadishu, in which 18 Americans were killed defending U.S. interests and providing vital humanitarian assistance to Somalia.

There seems to be a real tension between a desire for a strong national government to be able to resist intrusion from Ethiopia, from Kenya sort of meddling by outside forces.

If you might, for AMISOM to be successful, they need--several of you have recommended greater force projection capability.

I have represented in a number of settings that this is something we really ought to be looking to more broadly.