Senate Republicans today blocked a vote to confirm defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel.

We have a constitutional obligation to provide for the defense of this Nation of ours and a moral responsibility to pass a safe Nation on to our children.

It is, I think, a critically important part of our foreign policy, clearly in our national interest.

DOD, I think in many ways, has been bloated. The Defense Department has gotten everything it has wanted the last 10 years and more. We have taken priorities. We have taken dollars. We have taken programs. We have taken policies out of the…

If you do not hold people accountable, then you are not going to fix the problem.

I think we all accept it is a crime, and it needs to be treated as a crime.

I made this decision very reluctantly. I made it reluctantly because I recognize the significant hardship this places on our civilian personnel across the country and their families.

We cannot stand by and allow this unbalanced approach to remain the law of the land.

The President's fiscal year 2014 budget continues to implement the $487 billion in spending reductions over 10 years agreed to in the Budget Control of 2011, as Senator Sessions noted.

I do not personally believe that you can eliminate the command structure in the military from this process.

When you are making friends around the world, when you are developing partners and allies, you are developing the next generation of global citizens who see America helping them.

My understanding is that the Navy has complied with the law and submitted the report to Congress on 1 February 2013.

I support the current administration approach, in which DOD has the responsibility to defend, deter, and, when directed by the President, take action to defend the United States, its allies, and its interests in cyberspace as in all…

I support strong missile defense cooperation with Israel, including the deployment of the U.S. TPY-2 radar and operational cooperation and support, including ship-based.

A normalized relationship between our two countries, based on mutual respect and mutual interests, is the best way to advance U.S., Iraqi, and regional interests.

I fully supported the withdrawal of all U.S. combat forces from Iraq by December 2011 in accordance with the November 2008 U.S.-Iraq Security Agreement.

I do not believe that providing lethal support to the armed opposition at this time would improve the terrible situation in Syria.

The President has said Assad must go, and a democratic political transition should remain our goal.