Dick Lugar

Are you going to be able to identify, as we have future hearings, which I am certain we will, be able to quantify those costs or offer us some metrics so we understand this is reasonable, excessive, or out of reach?

Does this create such a burden that U.S. firms are likely to be competitively affected?

The end-user situation, in other words, you believe does make this differentiation so that this is not quite so onerous to other people.

the idea of transparency is very important, trading on exchanges, but is there any potential differentiation between the sophisticated bankers and regular businesses and farmers?

a concern regarding extraterritorial application of rules relating to the U.S. Dodd-Frank Act

this committee has discussed, as you have in your opening statement, the possibility of passing to the Afghans control over military and police functions

The administration's ambiguity on our goals must be eliminated in order to more effectively address our national security interests.

This is not an American problem only or an American obligation.

The question the President must answer is whether we can achieve the most important national security goals in Afghanistan--especially preventing the Taliban from taking over the government and preventing Afghan territory from being used…

This opportunity should be used to do more than just withdraw an arbitrary number of troops based on political expediency.

we walked away from Afghanistan in 1989 with disastrous consequences and we cannot afford to do so again

The situation in Afghanistan is complex and requires a nuanced approach.

I made notes that you suggested the Taliban will persist in Afghanistan in one form or another.

Ambassador Burns would be the first Foreign Service officer to serve as Deputy Secretary in nearly 30 years.

The State Department budget represents something like 1 percent of the total Federal budget.

This underscores the importance to United States national security of a stable Pakistan and of continued engagement on terrorism and nuclear security issues.

Pakistan is the key to diminishing the insurgency in Afghanistan itself.

It would appear that about $8 billion has been cut from the State Department's budget request just for the rest of this fiscal year.

I stressed the importance of making our foreign policy less reactive and promoting management of the State Department.

We need to work with the Afghan Government in order to make sure that those who wish to lay down their arms can in fact do so.

It is a privilege to join you in welcoming Ambassador Burns once again to the Foreign Relations Committee.

We are not discussing for the moment precisely what is in any of these budgets.

We hope you will stay closely in touch throughout these months.

It is essential for the Department to demonstrate the most effective possible use of the resources that we are provided.

Well, in the same way that we've taken other diplomatic tacts in the past, this seems to me to be one that would help reset the relationship and be very, very important.