I think it is a key component because it is about confidence. It is about self-governance. It is about rights.

I will meet with the President to brief him on the results to give him a sense of the choices that will have to be made if the DOD topline remains sequestered beyond fiscal year 2013.

This committee does have jurisdiction here. Senator Hatch talked about it at the outset.

We introduced a bipartisan bill... that basically requires that children who have been involved in sex trafficking be considered victims of abuse and neglect under CAPTA.

In 2010, Toledo was listed as the fourth-ranking city in America in terms of human trafficking.

I really appreciate the fact that all of you are engaged on this issue and every day in the trenches.

I think one step further, where this committee actually has a role to play, is ensuring that those victims are eligible to receive services as victims of child abuse in the child welfare system.

Mr. President, I wish to announce that the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship will meet on June 13, 2013, at 10 a.m. in room 428A, Russell Senate Office Building to hold a markup of pending legislation. ____________________

Mr. President, the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee will soon bid farewell to our congressional fellow, Coast Guard CDR. George Kovatch, who has served the Committee on Appropriations over the past 3 years. Unfortunately…

I want to thank the Chairman and the Ranking Member for this important hearing.

I wanted to know how much of those consolidated centers are actually being used.

I do not want to sit here as a member of this committee like some people did in the 1940s and closed their eyes to what was going on in Germany.

I am going to submit my final question for the record and that is about the role of the National Guard, Mr. Chairman, in our cyber fight.

I think that she made an excellent point earlier about really focusing, Secretary, on the academies.

I am a co-sponsor of the Cyber Warrior Act of 2013, which requires the creation of National Guard Cyber Response Teams in every State.

How ready can you be if you have not practiced together? That is the question. And it is really a problem.

the head of agencies shall, and it is very specific about empowering the head of the agency

In adversity lies opportunity.