Mr. President, I wish to call for new aid to Eastern Europe to strengthen our allies in the face of Russia's annexation of Crimea. Some of my colleagues have suggested that we can do this by immediately increasing our export of…

And there is a lot that has been said about whether we will or will not have a bilateral security agreement [BSA] in Afghanistan.

If we have learned nothing in the last 12 years of war it is that we do need to turn inside the enemy.

How does your service's FY15 base budget request reflect efforts to return to a non-OCO budgetary world? What specific functions have you moved from OCO to base?

Please describe your service's efforts to migrate enduring requirements into the base budget? How challenging has sequestration made that task? What is most at-risk?

I call to order the Subcommittee on Readiness of the House Armed Services Committee.

How would your overall readiness be affected by the elimination of OCO?

How dependent are you on OCO for day-to-day operations? How will the dependence change after the majority of, or possibly all, combat troops are out of Afghanistan?

Without the support of OCO, at what point in time would the force return, in large measure, to full-spectrum readiness?

Congress has responded to headlines with knee-jerk federal criminal legislation, without inquiry into whether the federal government should be involved at all.

Our government's greatest power, the conduit by which it can deprive a citizen of liberty or even life itself, is criminal law.

Under the Constitution, states have the 'police power' and should have primary jurisdiction over crimes.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 10 minutes as in morning business. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The Minimum Wage

Mr. President, on October 16, 1936, President Roosevelt visited the then-largest city in Ohio, the town my wife and I live in, Cleveland, OH. He spoke about why the ``trickle down'' theory does not work--this whole view that has been tried…

Fort Huachuca is a wonderful place. I don't know if you have visited it, but if you haven't it is a fantastic facility.

I have opposed sequestration. We will hope that we can come back and do something about that.

I really hope that we can find a way to reconsider this decision until we have platforms in place that really will prevent the gap.

Mr. Speaker, it is my honor this morning to express the gratitude of the House for this morning's opening prayer by one of Maryland's most dynamic and inspirational faith leaders, my dear friend, Pastor Jonathan Leslie Weaver. Pastor…