Mazie Hirono

I completely support the President's declared shift to the Pacific.

I think that it is very clear that I am very focused on one of the principles of immigration reform as family reunification.

This is no way for us to fix this broken system.

We should not get tunnel vision and forget the human element of immigration.

Well, for example, in my own community there are World War II Filipino veterans who fought alongside our troops...

I think that immigration reform should be guided by certain principles that reflect our values.

I think family-based immigration is essential to ensuring the continued vitality of the American economy...

Now, this is an issue that I know that we have been attempting to address for over a decade...

I certainly agree that we should not educate foreign students and then send them away to work for foreign competitors.

We are confronted with a broken immigration system, with 11 million undocumented people in our country.

I think it is abundantly clear that we need to avoid sequestration because the harm to our military, as well as on the civilian side, and the non-military spending will be quite devastating.

This is a self-inflicted situation and brought about by political gridlock. So it is going to take us sitting here, along with the President, to get out of this gridlock.

We strongly support increasing to effectively a universal background check system.

It is too easy for prohibited persons to evade the background check requirement.

I think that probably leads to a more heightened priority for those areas in terms of the safety of our people.

For the Americans who lost their lives in Benghazi-- Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty--they were heroes and they represented our country proudly.

Should climate surveys be tied to the commander's permanent personnel records?

Should climate surveys be kept to monitor potential long-term issues?

The continued budget uncertainties the Department faces will inhibit our ability refresh the workforce.

The furloughs have created difficult situations for many.

Sequestration has created a level of budget uncertainty that makes this much more challenging.

Senator Hagel has tremendous breadth of leadership in both the public and the private sectors.

It is important to our national security to have leadership in the Department of Defense right now.

Certainly, continuing to fund research and development efforts in these areas will accrue to us in the long term in terms of huge, huge cost savings for DOD.

The welfare, the safety, the success of our men and women in uniform is my top priority, has been and will continue to be, and their families.