The President's policy towards Afghanistan notes that part of our counter-insurgency strategy must include building effective local governance.

The lead U.S. agency for rule-of-law and other governance development initiatives is the Department of State.

Eight years ago, I took up an issue.

The fact that there is one is too many.

Working to reduce corruption in Afghanistan has been a U.S. Government objective from the beginning.

The entity that is established to govern the forensic science community cannot be principally beholden to law enforcement.

It's a matter of respect. It's a matter of respecting each other. It's a matter of honoring each other's integrity and their person and treating each other as we would want to be treated.

Political, ethnic, and sectarian tensions may continue to surface in sporadic bouts of violence.

I thought that that was kind of a solid, objective piece of evidence that we could rely on here.

147 cases in a police lab mess called the 'tip of the iceberg.'

Arizona has become the gateway for drugs and human being smuggling into the rest of the United States.

The threat posted to American citizens and communities by the Mexican-based drug-trafficking organizations cannot be underestimated.

I think there is a perception today of a need for the U.S. to understand its own responsibilities and own up to them.

90 percent of the weapons that we traced that the Mexicans recover are source state here in the United States.

We have a responsibility, and to ignore it by saying, well, if we were not irresponsible, somebody else would be irresponsible, is cold comfort to people living in a country where 6,000 people were killed last year, mainly because of…

When it comes to Mexican drug cartels, there is too much at stake to allow us to be divided.

I want to thank the entire panel and just note for the record that we had ten members of this Committee come to ask questions, which is extraordinary for a Subcommittee meeting.

the problem of Mexican drug cartels would be a top priority.

Phoenix, my city, has become known as the kidnapping capital of the United States.

I recognize the right of American citizens to defend themselves, to use guns legally for sporting and hunting.

The reintroduction and passage of a bill to regulate .50-caliber firearms under the National Firearms Act would go a long way in helping to reduce the number of assault weapons flowing into Mexico.

Guns are a serious problem. The fact that literally thousands of guns are flowing from the United States into Mexico every day is arming these drug cartels.

We have to really look at the source of this problem. It is our insatiable drug appetite, some 35 million users in the United States, that has created this problem and provides the money that is fueling these drug cartels and this violence.

I am appalled that you can buy a .50-caliber sniper weapon anywhere.

The only way we are going to be successful is to truly mount a comprehensive attack upon the cartels.