In my experience as an infantry officer on the ground in Iraq, there were many times when I was asked to do jobs that I was unprepared for and untrained for, because they were State Department jobs, but the State Department wasn't there.

Today marks our subcommittee's fifth discussion on reforms to the Department of Defense's background investigation and security clearance process.

You're responsible for everything your platoon does or fails to do.

This situation is absurd. Your leadership must be held accountable and it must never happen again.

I absolutely believe that NiSource has safety as a core value.

No American family should go home in the evening with the fear that their house might blow up.

If that is what the troops are hearing--if that is what the American parents and families of these troops are hearing, and you have already said that that is illegal under the authorization given from Congress, then I think the…

What is your strategy? Moreover, we don't even know what your long-term objectives are.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Thank you for scheduling this hearing--for rescheduling the hearing due to the hurricane.

Right now our troops inside Syria are there for one purpose, and that is under the U.N. authorization about defeating ISIS.

This is not an analytical judgment. You are telling troops when they can go home.

What you are stating is that sending U.S. troops to Syria as part of a strategy to deter Iran, and with the guidance that they will not be withdrawn until Iran withdraws its forces is not a military operation against Iran?